Criminal background checks can give you valuable insight into a candidate’s past that can act as an indicator of future obstacles. This in turn helps you ensure a safer workplace, reduced liability due to negligent hiring practices, reduced shrinkage, etc. Luckily, the screening industry provides a wide variety of services that can be conducted to help you identify the perfect candidate for the position you are staffing.
Employers often leave themselves open to legal troubles by not knowing the choices available to them when selecting background checks to order. This results in ordering the wrong types of checks altogether. The type of company, position, industry, and other factors all call for various reports, depending upon specific needs.
Criminal history records can be limited by a variety of factors, such as State and Federal reporting limits. In addition to these differences in criminal history records, there are many, many jurisdictions nationwide, and those jurisdictions do not communicate with each other for the most part. In other words, if a crime is committed in one jurisdiction, you may never see that result in a criminal history check, if you are not sure where to look. When designing a background screening program for your company, you should consider more than one type of criminal history check to ensure you are getting the most accurate results available.
Some of the criminal checks available include:
County Criminal Records Search:
These county level checks offer a name check for any criminal history (Felony and misdemeanors where available), at the county level, throughout over 3100 counties across the United States. Based on the zip codes that an applicant provides and in conjunction with the zip codes found from the SSN trace, counties to be searched are established. These search requests are fulfilled either through an extensive national network of researchers, or by utilizing direct access to county court records. The standard county criminal search period is 7 years.
Statewide Criminal Records Search:
A state level name check for any criminal history at the state level repositories. Not all states are available, and the overall completeness of the report will vary depending on the state repository.
National Criminal Database and OFAC Search:
This search includes an FCRA Compliance Verification for positive matches, using a name & date of birth search of a national criminal database. This national database search is a comprehensive database providing access to the largest source of criminal data available, including millions of offense records. The national search is a valuable information resource that may discover convictions in counties not identified in a Social Security Trace or Credit History Report. This also includes an Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) search, and FBI Most Wanted/Terrorist Watch Lists search.
National Sexual & Violent Offender Search
National database search of all 50 states sexual offender and violent offender lists (SOR).
District Federal Criminal Records
This search is a name check for any criminal history at the Federal District repositories (federal crimes).
As you can see, the types of searches available vary greatly and will deliver highly disparate results. An organization that understands the options available to them with criminal history background checks will be able to develop the best possible background screening program for their specific needs.
Active Screening is a nationwide leader providing industry specific solutions that help employers make smarter hiring decisions and reduce time to hire. Read more about our criminal backround check services here and contact us to schedule a demo to see how we can help you craft the perfect solution for your needs.