Be Your Own Detective

Computerized records are making criminal records expungment more difficult to accomplish. Criminal records that used to be kept on paper file, have gone digital, and reports show are being sold to the private sector.
An important ethical question often asked is should this be legal? Should the needs of employers to run criminal background checks take [...]

In response to the recruitment shortage with the ongoing war in Iraq, criminal background waivers for new US Army recruits have increased to 65% from 2003 to 2006, according to DOD records.
The US has an all-volunteer Army and the Bush Administration pledged not to have a draft, the US Army has employed various strategies to [...]

As more employers are running criminal background checks on job applicants, critics are complaining that this is unfair to blacks, since they are more likely to have criminal records.
Actually a new study done by The Journal of Law and Economics have found just the opposite to be the case. Employers who run criminal background [...]

“Background investigation” is a very broad term. There many different levels or tiers of background investigation. Most lay-people think of it as finding out if somebody has a criminal record. This is the easiest part of investigation, and there are a number of effective inexpensive do-it-yourself detective tools available on the market for this purpose.
We [...]

Perhaps you’ve had a brush with the law as a juvenile, a youthful indescretion – you exercised poor judgment and maybe did a little time in the slammer for it. After having been an upstanding law-abiding citizen who doesn’t even smoke cigarettes, for so many years, you decided to have the record expunged so [...]

When having a criminal record Exploring sealed or expunged, you have to wonder, is it truly sealed? Was is a waste of time & money? Criminal records for a long time, were kept only on paper file by law enforcement, courts and departments of corrections, so privacy was much better protected. Today as they have [...]

Are criminal background checks on job applicants or existing employees always a good idea? Is refusing to hire somebody because of a criminal record always what’s best for society? This is a valid argument often brought up, particularly by those who have a criminal record.
Employers do have an obligation to protect their employees, assets and [...]

Not all criminal background checks are created equal. Some might believe simply looking up somebody’s arrest reports at the Sheriff’s Dept accomplishes a “background check.” In reality, this accomplishes little if nothing. What about arrests made by other counties, jurisdictions, or even other states?
The Clerk of the Courts has a much better record of arrests [...]

In Daytona Beach, Florida, the victims of crime will now undergo criminal background checks by the Daytona Police Dept.
The reason cited by the DBPD, is to help detectives to better track down any possible associations between the suspect and the victim, and possible motives behind the crimes. The chief of police feels they need [...]

Unclaimed money to most people might be some forgotten cash in the pocket of a jacket you bought at a thrift shop, or perhaps a wad of $20 bills you might have found in the parking lot of a biker bar.
There is $22.8 billion in unclaimed property nationwide, according to the National Association of Unclaimed [...]