In today’s employment world, anyone in charge of making hiring decisions for a business understands the importance of conducting a criminal background check. Just like calling references and conducting a personal interview with the applicant, a criminal background check is an essential step in the pre-employment screening process. Using the proper criminal background check allows you to make an informed and confident hiring decision. Unfortunately, most hiring managers do not fully understand how to conduct a proper criminal background check.

A criminal record is created whenever an individual is charged with a crime. In order to find out what crimes an applicant has committed, you need to do a criminal background check. To conduct a criminal background check, it is highly recommended that you utilize the services of a professional background check company. Using a criminal background check company will give you access to the company’s criminal background check search engine, which is typically either a web-based program or other software system. To commence the criminal background check you simply enter such information as the individual’s name, address and social security number. The criminal background check will then search numerous criminal record related databases. After a complete database search is complete, the criminal background check will let the user know if any criminal history is found. Having this information about a potential employee allows the hiring company to make a well-informed and less-subjective evaluation of the potential hire.

Seems simple enough, right? However, there is one more essential step you must understand in order to conduct a successful and useful criminal background check. Since the United States’ judicial system is comprised of numerous jurisdictions, such as the federal and state governments, there are multiple places where information pertaining to criminal records may be held. Since each state has their own unique criminal codes, each state also has their own criminal record system. Further, each state is divided into various judicial districts, which may also have their own criminal record database. Thus, when conducting a criminal background check, it is necessary you check all of databases maintained by all of the relevant jurisdictions.

In order to conduct a multiple jurisdiction criminal background check, you must first determine which jurisdictions are relevant. Although you could perform a criminal background check of all jurisdictions, this can become costly and time consuming. To get the information you want, you must narrow down the jurisdictions and then perform a multiple jurisdiction criminal background check. First, on the criminal background check system, be sure to check both the federal criminal background check and the criminal background check for the state your business is located and the applicant resides in. Then, review the applicant’s resume and application to see where else they worked or attended school. If these places are located in different states, be sure to select these jurisdictions to search also. Finally, you can also use a social security verification to determine other places of domicile not listed on the applicant’s documentation. By taking the time to conduct a multiple jurisdiction criminal background check, you will be able to make the right hiring decision.