Criminal Records

Criminal Records and Criminal Records Searches

Criminal Records are provided by a variety of information sources. The problem with criminal records and criminal records search is that every state has its own criminal records database. Can you imagine what it would take to search all those criminal records by yourself? Of course you can. Now, it's true that many states provide online searches of their criminal records databases but you really don't have time to visit all those online databases to conduct your criminal records search. So you find yourself paying someone to conduct criminal records searches for you because they know how to search criminal records faster than you do. That hardly seems fair, doesn't it?

Criminal records are a nasty mess of data to sift through. When you search criminal records looking for people with common names, you have to be very careful in determining if the criminal records you find really are records for the people you're doing background checks on. Some people with similar names may come from the same communities, and it is entirely possible that someone may steal another person's identity and use that stolen identity to falsify their criminal records. You would hope that the keepers of criminal records really know who they are dealing with but can you really be sure those criminal records won't confuse someone who doesn't have extremely detailed information to work with?

If you're investigating another person's background and checking criminal records you should make every reasonable effort to obtain as many of their former addresses as possible. You also want to know, when searching for criminal records, when people lived at those former addresses. Unlikely as it may seem, John Smith might live in the same home as a previous John Smith who has a criminal record. How do you know which John Smith whose criminal record you are seeing? You have to be careful and exercise due diligence to ensure you take every reasonable step not to confuse someone's criminal records with another person's background.

When you are looking through a long list of criminal records you may find some duplicate listings. Why would there be duplicate information in a criminal records report? Some criminal records databases scrape or buy their criminal records data from multiple sources. Each source of information on criminal records may format the data differently and the data aggregator may blend the criminal records data in a conservative method. Conservative blending means you only combine two similar records when every character in each record exactly matches the other. Many criminal records databases record suffixes, titles, and street names in non-standard formats.

Some criminal records database aggregators may normalize the information in the criminal records data they purchase from other sources. To normalize addresses you transform all "ST" references to "Street" (or vice versa). Every "Dr" in a criminal record has to be changed to a "Drive". But some criminal records databases don't use "ST" or "Street". They may use "STR". Some criminal records databases may use "DRV" instead of "Dr" or "Drive". The more street names you have (such as "Smith Blvd", "Smythe Boulevarde", etc.) the more likely you are to confuse your criminal records data. This is why many criminal records databases leave it to the searcher to decide if two addresses are really the same address.

Another problem that may arise when you are searching criminal records databases is that some criminal records may have the wrong apartment number. For example, someone may transcribe Apartment O-10 as Apartment 0-10. Depending on the font or the way a character is written, the capital letter "O" may look like the digit "0". The digit "1" can look like a lower-case "l". How is the criminal records transcriber to know the difference? These types of very simple mistakes make it extremely difficult to know exactly how many criminal records someone may have in their background or how many people share similar criminal backgrounds.

If you want to search criminal records then be sure to conduct a careful search because if you search criminal records carelessly you may reach rash judgements and wrongly accuse people of committing crimes they had nothing to do with. You want to conduct a thorough search of criminal records regardless of how you search criminal records and regardless of which criminal records search tool you use. If you choose to conduct your search yourself you must ensure your search does not leave out anything but you must also make sure your search does not lead you to the wrong conclusion.

In a day where hundreds of thousands of people are released from prison every year it is prudent to conduct criminal records searches and background searches but if your business is not extremely sensitive to theft or fraud learning that someone has a criminal record in their background may not necessarily help you make the best employment decision. Just because someone has been arrested in the past does not mean they committed a crime and just because someone committed a crime in the past does not mean they will commit a crime in the future. In fact, every year many thousands of people commit their first crimes ever, so you have no way of guaranteeing that you won't hire someone inappropriate. You can reduce the risk by being careful.

It's always preferable for people who have criminal records to admit as much on their job applications when it is legal and appropriate to do so, and it is appropriate for employers who conduct criminal records search not to use the information that searches of criminal records provide to make rash judgements. A prudent exercise in caution might include discussing the results of the search with the applicant. You can, after all, accidentally dismiss a worthy applicant because you did not exercise careful diligence in your search of criminal records.

Criminal records search is not a 100% reliable means of qualifying potential job applicants. Take every step to ensure that you reach the right and proper conclusion based on the search criteria you provide to a criminal records search service or provider. You may only have one opportunity to search criminal records databases for a highly qualified individual and it may be that someone who has made a mistake in the past will find work with one of your competitors and prove to be one of those very esteemable people who changes their lives.