How to Do a Criminal Background Check

Is there someone in your life who makes you wonder or feel uneasy? Are you an employer who wants to know how to screen the background of potential employees? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, perhaps you should do a criminal background check on the person or people in question.

Performing a criminal background check on someone is not as hard as you may think, and the results can tell you a lot about a person. If you want to do a criminal background check on someone but do not know where to begin, the following tips can help.

Getting Started

Before you can do a criminal background check on a person, you need to find out some basic information on them. You will need to know their first and last name, along with current and previous addresses. If possible, get a social security number as well. Social security numbers can be of great help in obtaining accurate information on a person.

If you are an employer who wants to do a criminal background check on a potential employee, you must get the person’s permission to do so. Have them sign a waiver that gives you the okay to do a background check. If you do not get permission and go ahead with a background check anyway, you can get yourself into some serious trouble. You certainly do not want to risk your job or business if someone accuses you of invading their privacy. Also, it is a good idea to treat all applicants the same way. If you are going to perform a criminal background check on one person, it is best to perform one on everyone. This will prevent anyone from claiming that you treated them unfairly.

Doing a Criminal Background Check on Your Own

If you are an individual who would like to perform a criminal background check on your own time, there are a few things you can do. First of all, you can do a simple web search of the person in question. Go to a web search engine, such as Google, and enter in the person’s first and last name and location. If there is anything majorly significant in the person’s past, it may show up.

Another more thorough way of checking a person’s criminal background is by reviewing court records. You can check the court records of any locations in which the person lived as long as you have those locations. This includes county and state court records. These records will be able to tell you if the person was convicted of any crimes, whether misdemeanors or felonies. Keep in mind that you will have to contact the applicable courts in order to get the records and a processing fee may be incurred.

Use an Online Criminal Records Site

The easiest way to do a criminal background check on someone is to use one of the many online criminal records websites. These sites can find just about anything on anyone, and all you have to do is pay a fee. Try to steer clear of any sites that offer free reports, as they probably are not very accurate. Because it can take a lot of time to find records on your own, many people choose to use these sites that do the work for you. Not only is the work done for you, but the fee is usually not much more than the cost of court records.

Now that you know how easy it is to do a criminal background check on someone, you will have no trouble should you ever need to perform one. Whether you are an individual or an employer, you will have peace of mind knowing exactly who you are dealing with.