Criminal Background Check

A criminal history check helps to ensure that you’re hiring the right employee and creating a safe working environment. In addition, including this search on your background check will reduce risks, protect your organizations’ assets and reputation, reduce on-the-job incidents, and prevent lawsuits, fines, and fees.

By providing employers with the knowledge of an applicant's criminal history, they can make a more informed and safer hiring decision. A criminal history check reveals detailed information regarding an individual’s county, state, and federal criminal history by utilizing the applicant's personal information such as social security number, date of birth, and court records. Each record varies by the type of information it searches for and the results that are returned.

Each year, DISA fulfills millions of employer background check items through our system, paying close attention to laws and regulations. As an industry-leading screening provider, we ensure our customers' workplaces are safer and their hiring decisions are made with the most accurate and impactful information available.

County background checks, or county criminal history search results, include information about criminal cases filed only in the county ordered. This is where you’ll find the most up-to-date case information as counties are where criminal cases begin. Depending on the county, reports may not have a quick turnaround time, which can cause delays with the reporting process.

Results include:

• Case number
• Offense type
• Date of offense
• Disposition date/specifics
• Sentence
• Confirmation of the current disposition

State background checks, or statewide criminal history search results, include information as reported to a state by counties within the state. Results may include case number, offense type, date of offense, disposition date/specifics, and confirmation of the current disposition. Results will not include cases reported on the County Criminal Record Search (if ordered by the client). Not all states have a statewide criminal record repository that is accessible to Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) like DISA.

Federal background checks, or federal criminal history search results, include criminal court record information that can be accessed via one or more of the 94 U.S. Federal District courts across the United States. These searches are conducted online at Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), which is a Federal government website that’s updated in real-time.

Results that reveal violations of federal law include:

• Drug trafficking
• Money laundering
• Counterfeiting
• Racketeering
• Crimes committed across state lines

*This is not a nationwide search of state court records.

When conducting employer criminal background checks, DISA uses a grading scale ranging from 0 to 7 with each number corresponding to a category of offenses as it pertains to the consortium (site access) background orders. This grade will only be known by the employee, his or her employer, and the TPA performing the criminal history screen. Background screen grade definitions are as follows: