How Long is a Background Check Valid For?

A national criminal background check involves searching millions of digital records from thousands of jurisdictions in the United States. This includes terrorist and sex offender registries.

A national screening provides a checklist of infractions, misdemeanors, and felony convictions, as well as open cases.

If someone has a criminal record, it will be shown in the report. The type of crime, verdict, and date of the verdict will all be included, as well as the database where the record was discovered.

A national background check is the best place to start when screening candidates for employment.

Because the average person moves eleven times throughout their life, you’ll almost certainly be employing people who have lived in many locations. Local searches may not always be enough. A national search will discover and flag potential concerns in every state and county.

Although national criminal background checks are thorough, they aren’t perfect. They don’t, for example, include non-digital records or federal-level convictions, which brings us to the next background check.

You also need to make sure any findings are verified with the source of data, or you may be putting your company at liability risk.

A federal criminal background check searches through 94 federal United States district and appellate court databases. These are separate and distinct databases from those used for national checks.

A federal background check will reveal any convictions prosecuted at the federal level.

Crimes that may be uncovered by a federal background check are very severe. They might include drug distribution, unlawful gun possession, arson, kidnapping, embezzlement, tax evasion, counterfeiting, bank robbery, and other major felonies.

A federal criminal background check is commonly utilized by businesses in the financial sector, executives, and CPAs to find instances of fraud and embezzlement, or identity theft.

It’s critical to understand that while national and federal sound similar, they aren’t the same thing. 

A national background check includes a variety of nationwide databases, but a federal search specifically looks for criminal records in federal jurisdictions.

State criminal background checks are comparable to national criminal background checks, but they are done at the state level. State-level checks, like national screenings, provide an overview but may be incomplete. Some county records might not be available in a state-level check.

State-level crimes — such as robbery, arson, murder, and theft — might be similar to federal offenses in terms of severity, but state crimes also tend to have less severe penalties.

Keep in mind that not all counties submit data to state databases, and each database has its own set of rules.f you are looking for the most up-to-date info, it is advisable to request a county-level background check on a job applicant.

A county criminal background check reveals the most up-to-date and accurate information. County criminal record searches are among the most comprehensive sources for criminal records — felony and misdemeanor cases are generally handled in county courts. These records are housed in the 3,006 counties in the United States.

Of course, you don’t want to investigate every county in the United States. As a result, your background check vendor will likely recommend searching for people’s current home addresses, neighboring jurisdictions, and other locations where they’ve resided recently.

A county criminal background search will typically not return non-criminal records such as traffic citations, infractions, minor (by state statute) offenses, dismissed, and any expunged or erased records. The reporting of such records depends on federal and state reporting restrictions.

There are crucial differences between national, federal, state, and county background screenings. But they all share a common goal: to ensure that employees hired by an organization do not have any convictions that may disqualify them from the job.

Employers must also adhere to federal and state laws governing background checks for employment purposes when conducting background screenings on their employees.

Employers should know that applicants with criminal records are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), prohibiting employment discrimination. Employers should be aware of their responsibilities under both pre-employment criminal background checks laws.

If you decide to reject a job applicant based on their criminal history check, you must follow the FCRA regulations.