Many criminals don’t look like criminals. That’s why, as an employer, the ability to run a background check on a potential employee is extremely valuable. An employer has to place a lot of trust into someone that they have only just met and know very little about when they hire a new employee. Similarly, a parent has to have a tremendous amount of trust that a nanny or day care will not abuse its power and will protect their child from dangers.
Just as many criminals don’t look like criminals, many sex offenders do not look like sex offenders. As many crimes go unreported due to victims being ashamed of what has happened or fearing retribution from their attacker, and since younger children are often unable to defend themselves from an attack and may not even be fully aware of what is going on, institutions and parents may not find out what is happening until much too late.
Prevention and due diligence are the most important keys to stopping these crimes. Running a comprehensive background check will provide information on sex offenders, but even without that capability, both businesses and parents have a powerful tool available to make sure that the children under their guardianship stay protected and cared for. All sex offenders are required to register in the jurisdictions where they live, work, and travel and this information is made available for free to everyone.
Someone interested in performing a sex offender registry search can either go to the individual state’s registry, or they can visit a site, such as the National Sex Offender Public Website made available by the U.S. Department of Justice, that compiles multiple states’ records into one. This is especially useful if an offender has changed jurisdictions and failed to register in their new location. With this information at their disposal, parents and businesses can rest a little easier.
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