What Do Background Checks Reveal?

What do background checks reveal? A thorough background check will reveal key elements of a person’s criminal history, pending liens or judgments and even if there is an erratic work history.

Schools, summer camps, day care centers and any other sort of institution that deals with young children should pre-screen their potential hires for any previous offenses of a criminal or sexual nature. A comprehensive background check will reveal if a person has been convicted of a crime or if he or she is a registered sex offender. Unknowingly having a convicted sex offender on the payroll of a school or summer camp leaves the employer open to serious criminal and civil liabilities. Background checks can be done so that those states that make their sex offender registries part of the public domain can be checked; additionally, a meticulous check of criminal records will also reveal any sort of criminal history. Keeping children safe from predators is something that should be taken very seriously.

Another element that a solid background check will reveal is if the person is lying about his or her educational or work history. The proliferation of diploma mills, online colleges and universities and the ability to create phony documents all make for conducting a background check into these matters essential. There are documented cases of students creating phony high school and college transcripts. Recently the Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had lied about earning a degree in computer science. Several years ago young person was forced to drop out of Yale University after it was revealed that he had fabricated his high school transcript as well as several teacher recommendations. Had a background check been done on these individuals then both Yahoo and Yale could have saved themselves a great deal of time, money and embarrassment.

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