Criminal Background Check Success Rate?

Hi - Your question is great, but it's pretty broad, so it might be helpful to think about what is meant by "success" in checking criminal records of potential mentors. Are you asking whether the systems you are using actually yield accurate reports or whether the whole process of doing background checks is worth the trouble? What are the concerns your program has about the process of background checks?

There certainly are a lot of different systems people use and each state has slightly different processes for conducting checks, so some systems may be more effective than others. I would love to hear other people experiences with the different tools that are available.

It's hard to measure the absence of something - i.e., if your background checks continuously show that none of your mentors have criminal records that either means your system isn't working properly or it means that you have done a great job in recruiting and pre-screening your mentors.

I think perhaps the best way to measure the success of your screening process (which, of course, isn't just about the criminal background check) is to look at the number of complaints or incidents your program has had over the past 10 years. If your program has any incidents of abuse, reckless driving while transporting a child, or other unsafe or criminal activity then you probably need to look at your screening and background checking processes to be sure you have been doing everything you can to avoid accepting an inappropriate or dangerous mentor. Naturally, no screening process is 100% perfect, and in fact child predators are very good at wiggling through even the best screening process. But being diligent in screening is the only way to know that you have done all you can to keep your mentees - and your program - safe.

The Nonprofit Risk Management center has a good discussion of the process of checking criminal records: http://nonprofitrisk.org/library/articles/employment05001998.shtml

Hello - If you're talking about fingerprint- or name-based criminal history background checks, I wanted to share some information we've learned from producing our resource SAFE (Screening Applicants for Effectiveness): Guidelines to Prevent Child Molestation in Mentoring and Youth-Serving Organizations , the National Association of Professional Background Screeners commissioned a study about the effectiveness of fingerprint-based criminal history background checks. They found several concerns, including: “In a significant percentage of searches, the FBI data base returned erroneous or incomplete information” and a “…large number of missed records and false positives generated… when analyzing… background checks in the state of Florida… the database missed 11.7% of the criminal records it should have identified. Even worse - of the more than 10,000 criminal records found, 5.5% of them were falsely attributed to those who were not convicted of a crime.”
This is why we call our trainings Going Beyond the Background Check! It is just a tool, not a guarantee for the safety of youth in your program.
Feel free to contact me for more information: sarah@mentoringinstitute.org or 650-559-0200.

Sarah Kremer
Friends for Youth's Mentoring Institute

As an employer it is essential to know who you are looking to hire, and know everything about a person before hiring him or her. That is why a criminal background check service is essential, and there are many that have quite a huge success rate and find out detailed info on who you want.