Not even a day passes without reading in the journals about a theft or a robbery; different surveys have shown that usually the thieves are well familiarized with the surroundings. Our safety and the one of our family should be one of our main concerns at all times, not only at home but also at work, especially if it's your own business we're talking about. It has been shown that up to 30% of all job applications contain some kind of forgery, so criminal background checks are strongly recommended every time you wish to hire someone.

Among all types of background checks a company should perform, criminal background checks have a vital importance. As a manager, one should be very much aware of the risks of hiring a person without looking into his or her past. These risks range from theft to law suits or damages regarding the company's image. From the simple case of a salesman that steals from his employer to tragic stories about children being abused by social workers, this kind of facts should determine us to resort to very thorough criminal background checks for each of our employees. If in some cases the law specifically stipulates that criminal background checks should be performed (let's take, for example, the case of non-profits working with minors that are obliged to utilize it), other businesses should not neglect it either, as it could save them a lot of trouble in the future.

Though very useful, criminal background checks should be restricted to the employer's areas of interest, in order to avoid any conflict with existing privacy laws. Thus, it is advisable to be honest about the intention of performing any type of background investigation and clearly indicate it in the pre-employment literature.

The expenses of such investigations have proved to be insignificant if compared to other financial losses provoked by employees who had previous criminal convictions. Many companies have to deal with the public sector, so they are permanently exposed to negligence lawsuits (especially since the frequency of such lawsuits has been constantly rising during the last years). In the case of such companies, thorough criminal background checks should become a mandatory criterion of selection for future employees, though it is indicated, if not yet performed, to also investigate the background of the rest of the personnel.

Although it may seem that criminal background checks could be in the advantage of larger companies, smaller businesses shouldn't neglect the implication of hiring a person without enquiring a bit into his past. An example would be the story of a family from California who woke up to find their house almost empty. The burglars proved to be the two cleaning men they hired through a cleaning company. Further investigation has shown that, although the employer knew nothing about this, the two cleaning men had previous convictions for robbery. Of course, it wasn't only for the burglars to suffer the consequences; the company's reputation had a lot to suffer too, as a result of neglecting to resort to any kind of criminal background checks.

If you are an employer looking for new personnel and you have decided to resort to criminal background checks, you should keep in mind the fact that The Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibits the rejection of a candidate if he had been charged but not convicted for a crime. In this light, you should always know what information is gathered and from what sources, especially if you decide to hire a private investigation firm, as you can be held liable of violating Federal law if you refuse employment as a result of any criminal background checks you have done.

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