How Are Criminal Background Checks Performed?

How criminal background checks are performed depend on the type of check and the source it is checking. At backgroundchecks.com, we offer four types of criminal background screenings: county checks, state checks, federal checks, and multi-jurisdictional/database checks.

For a complete picture, county, state, and federal criminal history searches need to be performed with the direct involvement of a source—in other words, a source associated with the court in question needs to conduct the search and pull relevant records. Some courts have online systems that allow authorized users to search names and determine if a person has been convicted of a crime in those areas. Others have terminals at courthouses that criminal record researchers can use to conduct searches. Some have record systems that can only be searched by court clerks, necessitating background check professionals to fill out record search forms and wait for checks to process.

All these variations in how courts manage their systems have an impact on how criminal background checks are performed. The record system a court maintains can also impact how long the background check process takes. Records that can be searched via a website or terminal can be gathered more easily and quickly than records that are only searchable with court clerk assistance. The easier the records are to search, the faster the background check.

At backgroundchecks.com, we manage our own database of background information gathered from many different criminal record data sources. Customers can search our database using the US OneSEARCH background check service. This background check is instant since it involves searching criminal records we have already gathered and assembled into a far-reaching central database. In total, our US OneSEARCH database includes 600 million criminal records from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam.

All criminal background check services at backgroundchecks.com require employers to input several data points about the person they are searching, including name, date of birth, and Social Security Number. SSNs are a crucial part of our criminal background screenings because they allow us to uncover the names and addresses associated with that Social Security Number.

Since most criminal background checks involve name-based searches, it can be essential to know a person’s past aliases for a complete process. It could be the name a candidate provides doesn’t ping any criminal record search results, but their maiden name or alias does. As for address histories, knowing where a candidate lived in the past makes it easy to order additional county or state criminal searches in the areas where he or she used to reside.

Are you interested in learning more about how we conduct our criminal history searches at backgroundchecks.com? Feel free to get in touch with us today.