The standard Lorem Ipsum passage, used since the 1500s

26 Oct 2015

"Criminal records database searches are valuable because they cover a much larger geographical area than traditional searches, which are run at the county level. A traditional criminal search is conducted at individual courthouses that may be relevant to the applicant's history. Since there are more than 3,200 jurisdictions in America, not all courts can be checked on-site."

Criminal records database searches are valuable because they cover a much larger geographical area than traditional searches, which are run at the county level. A traditional criminal search is conducted at individual courthouses that may be relevant to the applicant's history. Since there are more than 3,200 jurisdictions in America, not all courts can be checked on-site.

Despite their value, criminal records databases have serious flaws. An April 11, 2004 article by the Chicago Tribune's Greg Burns discussed a test of an undisclosed online database service by a criminology professor at the University of Maryland. According to the article, the professor obtained the criminal records of 120 parolees in Virginia and submitted their names to a popular online background check company. Burns wrote that 60 names came back showing no criminal record, and many other reports were so jumbled that the offenses were tough to pick out. These types of errors may result from a number of causes, including incomplete records, name variations and untimely information.

Laws in several states regulate the records an employer can and cannot consider or obtain. Using a record of an arrest not resulting in a conviction may violate state or federal regulations, as may using records of a conviction that has since been set aside by some judicial proceeding, such as an expungement. If the security department conducts employment screening in-house, and the employer acts on the results without additional research, an applicant could potentially sue.

Some employers conduct in-house pre-employment screening investigations to avoid the requirements imposed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the federal law that regulates screening on the federal level. However, an employer who directly accesses a private database (as opposed to an official government Web site where anyone can access public records), may trip the FCRA requirements, because the employer is accessing information assembled by a third party that may bear upon an individual's character, general reputation, personal characteristics or mode of living as defined by the FCRA.

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