How to Do a Criminal Background Check

Co-authored by Clinton M. Sandvick, JD, PhD

Last Updated: May 6, 2021

Whether you are about to rent out your apartment, are in the process of recruiting new staff for your office, or planning to hire a new babysitter, you might want to perform a criminal background check to make sure you're getting the best people for the job. There are many easy ways to perform a background check, but the law limits what kind of information you can get and what you can do with it.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Performing a Background Check as an Employer or Landlord

1
Inform the employee or applicant of the background check. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) mandates that you tell applicants that you intend to do a background check and that you might use the information in the report to make a decision. You must write this information down on its own page and give it to the applicant. The page cannot have other information on it—it must be a page separate from the rest of the application.
- If you want to be able to able to check up on the person’s reports throughout the time that they work for you, that should also be stated in the document.
- You must also get written permission from the person you want to investigate.^{[1]
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2
Check state law. If you are planning on using a potential employee’s criminal history as part of your hiring criteria, make sure to check the specific laws in your state. States often limit what information you can ask for and then use.
- The FCRA allows reports to gather information as far back as 7 years, but some states do not allow employers to consider arrests that didn’t result in a conviction. Furthermore, a few states have even greater protections and won't allow even criminal records older than 7 years to be revealed in a background check.
- Even though arrest records are public, some states won't allow arrest records to be used in hiring decisions. Hawaii, for example, prohibits any inquiry into criminal history until after a conditional offer has been extended.^{[2]
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  Research source} Massachusetts likewise prohibits asking about criminal history on an initial job application.^{[3]
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- Other states prohibit or limit the use of information about an applicant’s credit history. In Illinois, an employer may not use information about credit history in a hiring decision, unless the applicant has applied for a job in a limited set of industries (such as banking or insurance).^{[4]
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3
Find accredited Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs). The Fair Credit Report Act regulates who can access a person’s consumer report and the collection of that information. Only someone with a valid reason may access a person’s credit reports. A CRA is a company that pays for access to various databases in order to collect information for background reports.
- To find CRAs, visit the National Association of Professional Background Screeners website. This organization accredits agencies and publishes a code of conduct which all members must adhere to.
- Visit the portal and search for firms by company name, state, or zip code.
- From the search results, you can click through to each company’s website. Each company's website provides additional information about the services it offers.
4
Research CRAs. Once you have come up with a list of CRAs in your state, you should investigate to make sure that the agency is truly legitimate. A member of the NAPBS should be legitimate. But if you decide to try a non-accredited company, call up (or email) and ask the following:
- Do they have a business license, and can they provide you with references?
- Do they follow the FCRA regulations?
- Is the company insured?
- If the company answers “No” to any of these questions, you should hire a different CRA no matter how good of a deal the company may be offering you.
5
Hire the CRA. Once you find an agency to perform a background check, you must begin the process by certifying that you have followed the appropriate procedures.
- For example, you must certify that you complied with FCRA regulations by informing the person of your wish to access the applicant’s consumer reports and by obtaining the person’s signature.
- You must also certify that you will not break any discrimination laws based on information contained in the person’s consumer report.
6
Request a report. A consumer report will contain information about criminal records, as well as employment and credit history. Under federal law, CRAs generally will not reveal civil lawsuits, civil judgments, arrests, accounts out for collection, or paid tax liens if they happened over 7 years ago. You are also unlikely to learn about bankruptcies if they occurred more than 10 years ago.
- However, if you believe that you need an employee’s history further back than 7 years, you can request that the history is included in your report.
- As always, state law places limits on what you can request. Your state may not allow you to request information beyond 7 years.
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Make a hiring decision. If a consumer report contains information that dissuades you from hiring a person, then FCRA regulations require that you inform the person of this fact.^{[5]
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Research source} Once notified, the person can challenge the information. You must do the following:
- Inform the person that there is negative information in the report.
- Inform the person which agency you used to prepare the report.
- Give them a copy of the “Summary of Your Rights under FCRA,” which you received from the CRA that you eventually hired.
- Allow the applicant an opportunity to rebut the information in the report.^{[6]
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  Research source} This rebuttal can be in the form of a letter outlining why the background check is wrong.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Researching Someone’s Background as a Private Citizen

1
Search online. You have the best search engine at your fingertips: the internet. When searching for someone’s history, be sure to put quotation marks around the person’s name. A number of websites allow free searches:
- Google.com, Whitepages.com, Friendfeed.com, Facebook.com, LinkedIn.com, Twitter.com, nsopw.gov, Glassdoor.com, and Bing.com.
- Always be mindful of the fact that the information found by performing a basic internet search may not be verified and could easily be false.
2
Pull public records. To uncover information about arrests, convictions, and incarcerations (a criminal background check), most information will be in the public record. To find this information, visit court and other government websites to access these documents. Type “criminal records” and then your state in a search engine.
- Remember to search documents in all states where your subject has lived. If you do not know where a person has lived, you can search on a website such as Intelius.com, which will often list the states a person has lived in.
- Don't forget to search county and city websites for records of convictions on the local level.
- Additionally, some counties do not maintain online databases: in this case, you will need to pull the records from the county courthouse, where there should be hard copies.
- Some counties charge a small fee for copies of the records, while some offer copies for free.
3
Ask for information directly from the person. There are a lot of records you cannot legally access without the permission of the subject—such as a credit report, school records, or military records. If you want to obtain certain information about someone, you may need to ask them to provide you with the information.
- If you are considering a new roommate, for instance, you may want to simply ask if they have ever been arrested or in trouble before making your decision.
- Understand that they do not have to give you access to or copies of their information. However, if they are not forthcoming with information, then you can certainly base your decision on your lack of information.
- For example, if a potential roommate refuses to state whether he or she has been arrested, then you can choose not to live with that person based on the lack of information.
4
Use a commercial web-based search engine. Many online companies, such as Intelius, US Search, and Net Detective, will search for someone’s address as well as their criminal background records. You can search by typing in the person’s first and last name, as well as current city and state.
- Prices vary, but you can expect to pay over $30.^{[7]
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- These companies may return “false positives.” For example, a bankruptcy filing might appear although the person never filed for bankruptcy protection.^{[8]
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5
Hire a professional. Unlike landlords and employers, a private citizen is allowed to hire any legal service to run background checks, including criminal background checks. Nevertheless, you should research any company before hiring them.
- You can find investigators on the web by typing “private investigator” and the name of your city.
- There are a lot of scam artists out there. Read online reviews of any background check company that you may want to use and see if people are satisfied with the results.