Aspects Involved In A Criminal Background Check
These days, it seems like every company out there wants to run a criminal background check before they'll even consider hiring you. This can be somewhat upsetting, because it's always a bit weird to have someone peeking into the details of your history and personal life. In many cases it's only off-putting because people don't really know what this entails. You would think it involves a huge amount of invasive investigation, but that is not necessarily the case. It does involve however, going over a number of past situations in your life, because it is an investigation of your past, but it's not necessarily invasive.
Why companies run these types of searches: It is important to understand that companies aren't doing background checks just because they want to know everything about you. There are actually a number of incredibly important reasons why they may need this information. The main reason they do it is liability. After all, no company wants to deal with a lawsuit and should they hire someone with a known history of committing certain types of offenses? They could become liable if the employee commits that offense again. Since they want to avoid that possibility, they research the individual of interest in order to ensure there's nothing too negative in a potential employee's history.
Though this being the main reason doesn't mean it's the only reason. Other aspects vary, but may include things like added scrutiny for the responsibility level of the job, state or federal laws involving background checks, and on occasion, simple transparency. While some of these reasons may not seem necessary, the fact remains that full background and criminal history checks are simply a way of life these days.
Potential employee rights and criminal background check history: Due to federal laws, a business cannot make a criminal history grounds for disbarring anyone from getting a job. Instead, they must be able to prove business necessity. The law has laid out a large number of specific guidelines that must be followed when claiming business necessity. Whether or not this works as intended is questionable, but the law is there. If you feel you've been illegally denied employment due to your criminal past, you do have rights. While it may be troublesome and expensive, it might be worthwhile to call a lawyer and see if they think you have a case. You never know, it may well wind up going in your favor.
Processes used when inquiring into an individuals past: When companies talk about doing a background check, it often sounds intimidating. However, it's important to remember that they can't search anything that's not already available to the public such as court records. That means that they're not going to be looking into things that they cannot legally search. Any business demanding your Facebook password, your personal e-mail password, or any other private information and claiming that its part of a background check is actually breaking the law and you are not required to give them the information. Instead, companies check various databases in order to find public records, including federal, state and county. They'll search arrest records, criminal history records, drug test records, bankruptcy, etc. and any other public database records they can. They will then compile this information and compile anything that's considered criminal activity.
In summary, that's all criminal background checks really involve. If you've felt intimidated by the idea of being subjected to this type of review, you really have nothing to worry about, for this type of inquiry is nothing more than a full search of public databases and records. So if you have nothing on record that's criminal, then you absolutely should not worry. Nobody will discover your personal vices or demons unless you divulge them or they appear in a drug test.