Did you know it's very difficult to get a criminal background check conducted in most foreign countries? Try running a criminal background check on someone in England or Germany – it's next to impossible. In most European countries privacy laws are so restrictive it's excruciatingly hard to get a criminal background check done, even by a licensed private investigator. (In Russia or China, forget it, it's not going to happen!)

We here in the US have got it right in this regard, in my opinion. We recognize that public records should be public, i.e., available to anyone who needs them for business or personal reasons, upon request. So criminal records are kept public here, and you can run a criminal background check on just about anybody with a couple mouse clicks on your computer, for example to reassure yourself that your next door neighbor is not a child molester, or your prospective business partner doesn't have a rap sheet!

But hold on, is it really that simple?

Well, you'd think so, based on the huge cottage industry in background checking that has sprung up online. Try entering the keyword phrase CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK in a search engine and you'll find hundreds of websites which will gladly provide an instant database search of criminal records, usually going back seven years, for a fee.

Sounds too good to be true and in fact it is. You see, there's a lot more to running a VALID criminal background check than just putting someone's name and date of birth through a nationwide database of criminal records. Sure, you can do that, but if you do ONLY that, and the search comes back clean, what you've got is false insurance. Nothing more.

Why do I say false insurance? Because such a quick-and-dirty database search will overlook many possible criminal records sources. Your subject may actually have a rap sheet a foot long but it can be totally missed by these simple nationwide database searches. Result: you think he or she is clean, and actually, this is not the case. So you've paid for false insurance, and it may turn out to be very costly to you down the road.

So what SHOULD be included in a criminal records search? Following is a listing of the elements that should go into a valid and thorough report. (Note that if you are running such a search for employment or credit purposes, you must adhere to Fair Credit Reporting Act requirements.)

Your criminal background searches should always include --

-- Nationwide criminal records searches (All 50 States and District of Columbia are searched, going back up to twenty years)

-- Aliases (Was your subject convicted of a crime while using an an alternative name?)

-- Wants & Warrants (Has a warrant been issued for your subject for failure to appear in court? Over 200,000 felony defendants fail to appear in court in the U.S. every year.)

-- Federal Convictions (Has your subject served time in a Federal prison for a Federal crime like tax evasion or embezzlement?)

-- Sexual Offenses (Simplest way to check this is through the National Sexual Offender Registry)

-- Terrorist Watch List (Check the OFAC List, available online.)

-- Interpol Search (Is your subject wanted internationally? You can also quickly check this online.)

-- News Search (Is your subject mentioned in the news? This search can reveal information about arrests and pending trials not available elsewhere. Using a variety of sites, such as Newspapers.com, you can check this quickly.)

In sum, whether you need criminal background checks routinely for use in your business (e.g., as part of your employment screening process), or you just need them occasionally on an ad hoc basis (e.g., you want to check out that new neighbor with green hair who's moved in across the street), it doesn't matter. Unless you run a thorough and complete set of searches, you're getting nothing more than false insurance!