Combating Inaccuracies in Criminal Background Checks by Giving Meaning to the Fair Credit Reporting Act
![handle is hein.journals/brklr78 and id is 277 raw text is: Combating Inaccuracies in Criminal
Background Checks by Giving Meaning
to the Fair Credit Reporting Act
INTRODUCTION
In today's workplace, employers are either highly
incentivized or legally mandated to ensure that they have
knowledge of an employee's criminal record. As a result, an
overwhelming majority of employers now require criminal
background checks as a condition of employment,' and millions
of these checks are performed each year.' Such checks are
especially prevalent in the midst of today's gripping recession,
A 2010 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that
73 percent of employers conduct criminal background checks on all job candidates,
while an additional 19 percent conduct criminal background checks on select job
candidates. Soc'Y FOR HUMAN RES. MGMT., BACKGROUND CHECKING: CONDUCTING
CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS (Jan. 22, 2010), available at http://www.shrm.org/
Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Pages/BackgroundCheckCriminalChecks.aspx. When
asked for their primary reasons for conducting criminal background checks, respondents
answered as follows: to ensure a safe work environment for employees (61 percent);
to reduce legal liability for negligent hiring (55 percent); to reduce/prevent theft and
embezzlement, other criminal activity (39 percent); to comply with applicable state
law requiring a background check (e.g. daycare teachers, licensed medical
practitioners, etc.) for a particular position (20 percent); to assess the overall
trustworthiness of the job candidate (12 percent); other (4 percent). Id. (noting that
[plercentages do not total to 100% as respondents were allowed multiple choices).
2 According to a 2008 ABC News investigation, There has been a surge in
interest in criminal background checks in the last 15 years. Private companies conduct
millions of such checks a year. Scott Michels, Advocates Complain of Background
Check Errors, ABC NEWS (Oct. 13, 2008), http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/
story?id=6017227&page=1. [E]mployers are relying increasingly on privately
maintained criminal history records. Michael H. Jagunic, Comment, The Unified
Sealed Theory: Updating Ohio's Record-Sealing Statute for the Twenty-First Century,
59 CLEV. ST. L. REV. 161, 170 (2011). Although comprehensive, industry-wide data are
not available, one CRA alone, ChoicePoint[,] reported that it conducted
approximately 3.3 million background investigations during 2002, the vast majority of
which included a criminal justice information component. SEARCH: NAT'L
CONSORTIUM FOR JUSTICE INFO. & STATISTICS, REPORT OF THE NATIONAL TASK FORCE
ON THE COMMERCIAL SALE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE INFORMATION 7 (2005), available at
http://search.org/files/pdf/rntfcscjri.pdf [hereinafter SEARCH].
271](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/brklr78&div=11&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Combating Inaccuracies in Criminal Background Checks by Giving Meaning to the Fair Credit Reporting Act
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most