Are your kids always around strangers? Do you often allow relatives and friends to stay in your house for extended stays? Do you hire a nanny to watch over your kids while you’re out of the house? Are there instances where you leave your child to your relatives with other people inside the house other than your family?
If you answered yes in any of these situations, then you should know there is a procedure where you can minimize child injury and give you a peace of mind even if you’re away. This process is called conducting a background check.
What is a Background Check?
Background check is a process where a particular person will be placed under scrutiny. This means aside from academic qualifications, all information about that person will be reviewed, including criminal records, financial records and even commercial records.
The purpose of conducting background checks and checking criminal records is to protect your children from individuals whose records show they pose a risk of physical or sexual abuse.
Considering the crime rate involving children, conducting a background check will help save your child’s life. It informs you about the past and existing criminal records, which is the primary focus of this process. Through this, you are assured that your children are not in the presence of criminal offenders.
How to Access the Available Criminal Records
Before, you need to apply to your local court if you can see any criminal records pertaining to a particular person. If you have extra money, you can hire a private investigator to do the job. Fast forward today, accessing criminal records can be done using the database available online.
You simply type the complete name of the person you wish to check the criminal records, state where s/he belongs and click search. The database will then display any criminal records such as arrest records, convictions, felonies and misdemeanours, traffic offenses and police records among others.
What are the Benefits of Publicly Available Criminal Records?
The biggest benefit of this type of process is you are able to protect your children against criminal offenders, no matter how minor their offenses may be. A person may argue using the res inter alios acta principle, which means even if he was convicted of a certain act, when the same act happened, it does not automatically prove his guilt. But will you risk exposing your child to someone who has a criminal record?
Take nannies for instance. Hiring a nanny or babysitter to look after the kids is common especially when you need to attend to important matters. Before allowing any person to have access to your home, you need to check any criminal records to confirm the person taking care of your children while you are away has no criminal offense.
Same goes with tutors. Both parents these days hire tutors to help their kids with their schoolwork. Although the chance of tutors or nannies being a criminal is low, there’s no harm in checking their background first. Don’t hesitate to ask for their complete name and birth date to verify their education and employment background.
Or if there are newcomers to the family like a boy or girl friend or an acquaintance whom your children will be able to interact with on a regular basis, running a comprehensive check on them won’t hurt. This is imperative especially when there are instances where your child will be left under the presence of this person.
When you’re a parent, ensuring your child’s safety and welfare is your main priority. Call it being a paranoid but there’s nothing wrong with running a comprehensive check on people whom your child will interact with. Through this electronic database, you’ll be able to ensure your children will only be in good and safe hands.
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