Background Check Question - cases as victim

[calvin1]

I'm going to be volunteering to work with children in an after-school program and had to give my consent for a background check. Besides bad credit and a few traffic tickets there's nothing for them to find. However, there is an ongoing criminal case where I am listed as the victim. Does anyone know if that could possibly come up in a background check?

BITOG is an odd place to ask (RIP USENET) but I'm hoping the brain-trust here might know the answer or be able to point me in the right place.

 

[Reg# 43897]

Don't know American law but I can't imagine that it is all that much different (in spirit) from Canadian. Anyway, these checks usually only focus on a criminal record. As there's no such thing as a 'victim record,' if you've never been convicted of anything criminal in a court, then I fail to see what there could be to disclose...

Run of the mill Motor Vehicle Act infractions reside on a driving history abstract, not a criminal record. If you were victimised by the actions of some criminal, that status would likely only exist on a specific police file & nowhere else.

Again, I stand to be corrected by somebody who has direct knowledge of your jurisdiction's specific procedures.

John.

 

[Mr Nice]

Many places won't consider you if you have bad credit, but I don't see why being a crime victim will hurt your chances of getting hired.

 

[calvin1]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Many places won't consider you if you have bad credit, but I don't see why being a crime victim will hurt your chances of getting hired.

It wouldn't prevent me from taking the position but OTOH I would like to know if they are going to know about this incident.

 

[doitmyself]

When my wife had one done for a daycare position, the search tied her to a woman with her same maiden name that had a criminal record.

The other woman had a different birth date, lived in another state, and also had different skin color. Yet, a red flag was raised regarding my wife's background.

Don't be surprised by these kind of errors.

 

[01rangerxl]

Originally Posted By: calvin1
It wouldn't prevent me from taking the position but OTOH I would like to know if they are going to know about this incident.


I guess it depends on what they are looking into. A simple background check probably won't tell them that you were a victim of anything. A background check is looking for arrests and convictions. If you weren't arrested for anything and you weren't convicted of anything, you have no criminal record.

Now if they search county records, or look in some database of court records, maybe they would find out that you were the victim of a crime. Also, if this made it into the news, they could find out that way. Some employers will search Google to see what potential employees might be up to. Unless they are digging deep, I doubt they will find out. If they do, I doubt even more that they will care.

 

[Loobed]

If you were a victim of a work related incident and are suing your employer, it might not look favorably for you.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Any background check will include court cases in which you are or were involved. In Iowa it's searchable online; I assume most other states are the same. Will it create a problem if you're the victim? It depends on who does the background investigation and how squeaky clean you have to be for the position. Working with children carries some pretty stringent requirements.

I'd be more concerned about the bad credit issue. Even for volunteer work bad credit raises a big flag.