Criminal Record

What is a Criminal Record?

What is a Criminal Record and what will be in the report I ordered?

Employers and landlords want to know whether applicants have a criminal record, especially if the nature of the conviction such as theft, burglary, embezzlement, etc. would disqualify the applicant from being hired or allowed to rent property.

To prevent such problems with prospective tenants or job applicants, landlords and hiring manages can order criminal records from AAA Credit Screening Services (AAACSS) as part of their employment background check or tenant background check process. When ordering these reports, you may wonder what exactly is a criminal record and what is included in the reports?

What is a Criminal Record?

A Criminal Record or Criminal Background is a list of a person's prior criminal convictions. Items usually included are misdemeanors, felonies and traffic offenses. Items not included in criminal record reports are cases tried in civil court such as tax evasion, bankruptcies or civil rights violations.

Reporting options include countywide record, statewide record, national record, federal record or international criminal record reports.

• US Countywide Criminal Record Reports

  
  

  Countywide criminal record checks include criminal convictions in a particular US county or parish. Reports are gathered by searching local county court records for the most up to date conviction information possible. Due to varied courthouse hours and response times, turnaround time for these reports vary.

• Statewide criminal record reports

  
  

  Statewide criminal record reports provide criminal convictions in a particular US state. These reports will include misdemeanor as well as felony convictions. The normal turnaround time for a statewide criminal record report is 1 hour, however state databases may not include local county court records, so there could be gaps in information, in cases where counties don't report to statewide databases. In cases where this may have happened, a customer service representative will reach out to customers and offer countywide criminal records as an alternative based on the applicant's prior address records.
  
  

• Nationwide criminal record reports
  
  

  Nationwide criminal records provide customers with US nationwide criminal background checks. These reports include felony and misdemeanor convictions nationwide. Turnaround time on these reports average 1 hour and is the widest scope of domestic reports that is offered.
  
  

  There are times that a hit on a criminal record report (Statewide or Nationwide) must be investigated at the county level before reports can be delivered to the client, causing the turnaround time of 1 hour to be delayed. This can be due to the county not reporting complete information such as full disposition (adjudicated guilt versus dismissed) information, etc.
  
  

• Federal felony criminal record reports
  

  Federal felony criminal record reports differ from nationwide criminal record reports because they search records in a specified federal district (e.g. Northern Texas District Court) only.
  
  

• International criminal background checks
  

  International Criminal Record Reports cover 1 specifically requested country or province and takes approximately 5 to 10 business days to complete. Some countries (e.g. Syria, Lebanon) may take longer while others (e.g. Puerto Rico, Canada) may come back quicker.
  
  

Criminal record reports are only a fraction of the background check reports that employers or landlords may find necessary when making hiring or renting decisions. Employment background check and Tenant screening packages are available that include credit reports, driving records, reference checks, drug screening and more. AAA Credit Screening Services has some employment screening packages already available, or we'd be happy to customize packages to meet customer needs.

For more information on available options or to customize a package for you, please feel free to contact us at 281-282-0447 or complete the new customer sign up at the link below to get started. Click on the image to the right to see a sample of what an AAACSS criminal record report looks like.

NEW Customer Signup

AAA Credit Screening Services charges NO Signup Fee, No Monthly Fees & No Annual fees! You only pay for the reports you want to order. Signup is 3 easy steps and once you're signed up, you can start ordering reports online. Click on the button below to complete our online Customer Service Agreement: