What Is Clear Criminal Background Check?

Criminal background checks are fairly common.

Many jobs, rental applications and even consumer credit loans may require the applicant to pass a criminal background check. Knowing what these inspections look for, and what a clear criminal background check is, can help you beforehand.

Basics

Criminal background checks use public records such as police reports and criminal prosecutions. These checks can search through local, state and federal records to determine if a person has a criminal history. These records and the ability for citizens to search them vary widely from state to state, and even city to city, so there is no uniform standard of what can be found in a criminal background check.

Records

Criminal background checks can reveal information related to police or state action against an individual. Records of arrests, prosecutions and convictions can be found and included in a criminal background check.

Clear Backgrounds

A criminal background check is "clear" or "clean" when there is no record of any criminal activity. Having no record of an arrest, prosecution or conviction will result in a clear criminal background check, while any record of a criminal proceeding will be viewed as negative.

Juvenile

Juvenile records are often excluded from criminal background checks because juvenile proceedings are handled differently. These records are generally sealed, meaning only people allowed to look at them by the court may do so.

Mistakes

Some criminal background checks result in mistakes. A person who has a record of a criminal action on their record can have that item removed, though the process for doing this varies from state to state.

References

• U.S Chamber of Commerce: How Do You Do a Background Check?
• Wisconsin Department of Justice: Crime Information Bureau