Criminal Records, Employment, and the Internet
Because of the Internet, searching for criminal records is now a lot easier and quicker. Many online services even offer to do the background check for you, and past police records can easily be retrieved. But take note that by law, only when an individual allows someone else to search for his criminal records is the search legal.
The Effect of Background Checks on Employment
The common argument is that the US spends an inordinate amount of money catching criminals and then the Internet makes it harder for such criminals to get back on track with society. Their records stay with them forever, making it difficult to find employment. After all, companies are within their rights to prefer applicants with no criminal records, to people who have one.
The risk is that the employers themselves can become legally liable should the applicant revert to his previous behavior. It is simply preferable to have an employee with no prior records, instead of one who already has a record. Some businesses even have that as a requisite – bank employees, security agencies and the like base their business on trust, and when an applicant has shown through his criminal record that the trust has been broken, it makes a lot of sense to hire someone else for the job.
The questions have in fact been raised to the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. The statistics on crime shows a definite trend and correlation with Hispanics and African-Americans, among other minorities. These statistics lend to the conclusion that there will be discrimination against these minorities with regards to employment, thanks to the ease and speed of Internet searches for criminal records.
The Redemption Research
The good news is that there is a study that has now become known as the Redemption Research. This study has found out that at a certain point in time, after the first brush with the law, an individual would have fewer predilections to commit another crime. The length of time is estimated to be at seven to ten years after the offense, after which an individual with a criminal record, for all intents and purposes, is just as likely to commit a second offense as an individual with no criminal record at all. In fact, it might even be concluded that there is a much lesser chance for the first individual to commit any crime again after having learned his or her lesson.
But the research still does not answer the question of the ease of access to information that should be considered very sensitive in the first place. In fact, in recent news, the Federal Trade Commission has sent notifications to Everify, Infopay and Intelligator, informing them of possible violations against the Fair Credit Reporting Act with their online services. These services are already available as “apps” on mobile phones, showing that while one might have already paid for a crime, the availability of criminal records online ensures that an individual keeps paying for his crime, over and over again.