Criminal Report Checking: Structure and Data to Check

A thorough employment screening process involves a check of an applicant’s criminal record. A criminal record is also known as police record or rap sheet. It is a record of a person’s criminal history. The structure of a criminal record may vary per country, but standardized in the United States across states. The content of a criminal record may include either or both non-expunged offenses or actual convictions. Collecting a substantial criminal record may be difficult as you need to communicate with different local and state agencies. A more challenging work is the validation and evaluation of a criminal record. To efficiently do the mundane task of criminal report checking, you need to be familiar as to the data you can find and not see on a criminal record.

Usually, a criminal record contains a person’s profile, non-expunged offenses, and actual convictions. The profile is brief and would usually include name and known aliases, date of birth, address, photograph, and fingerprints. The profile section of a criminal report should be used to determine if you are referencing the correct record. It is quite easy to overlook similar names so it is beneficial to cross check all data in the profile to the profile submitted by your applicant. An offense can be expunged. Expungement is a way to erase your criminal history or arrest record and for public not to access it. An expunged offense would mean not existing and someone can say it did not happen. An expunged offense is different from a sealed offense. Both records are inaccessible to the public except that a sealed offense still exist but would require a court order to access. Non-expunged offenses may include traffic offenses such as speeding and drunk-driving. A conviction is an offense which includes finding of guilt resulting to a sentence of probation, prison time, conditional discharge, fines, and supervisions or qualified probations that are not completed.

It is also important to be familiar as to what to check in a criminal record. The length and structure of a criminal record may vary per region, but a structured review of a criminal record can save you time and decrease the likelihood of overlooking pertinent information. Typically you should be looking into the arrest dates and the agency who did the arrest, type of the offense, the outcome of the case, the sentence served by the person, and the date the sentence was completed. Knowing the gravity of offenses a person committed will tell you if he or she is suitable for the job. It is not correct to turn down an applicant just because of an offense on his or her record. The seriousness, recurrence and period of time it happened should be considered carefully.

Through our computerized access to law enforcement agencies nationwide and in Puerto Rico, we at AlertChecks provide substantial, reliable, and accurate Criminal Record Checking service. We ensure a thorough and easy to understand criminal report to help you evaluate an applicant.