Criminal History Checks

A criminal records check can protect your company from making a hiring decision that may adversely affect your reputation. The type of work in which your company is engaged may prohibit those with criminal pasts from working for you. Even when there are no laws preventing them from working with you, you may be faced with an image problem if a search into an employee's past brings criminal behavior or lies to light in the future.

Using Criminal Records Checks

By performing background verification searches on prospective employees, you can reduce the risk to which your company is exposed.

Investigating an applicant's crime record needs to be done at the county, state, and federal levels. Reports from one of these governmental levels are unlikely to contain information on offenses committed at another level. While a county report may contain misdemeanor and felony records, checks at the state level will show outstanding warrants, parole status, and probation information. Federal records checks will include offenses, such as kidnapping, embezzlement, and other crimes, that have crossed state lines, including certain types of fraud.

One way in which you can perform a background verification is by taking advantage of the National Instant Criminal Search, which is also used by firearm dealers to determine an applicant's eligibility to own weapons. As individuals convicted of some misdemeanors are ineligible, this can provide you with an initial screening. In addition to this system, Nation Search offers more comprehensive pre employment background checks.