Criminal checks

Recently the Wall Street Journal ran a story about the increasing use of background checks for university applicants. It seems that resume inflation begins early these days. Applications to college are at record highs, and some candidates will do anything to stand out. According to the Josephson Institute of Ethics, 28% of high-schoolers stole from a store last year, and 60% cheated. (Even more disturbing, 92% of the respondents were satisfied with their personal ethics.) Padding your list of extracurriculars seems like small potatoes after that.

As a result, the academic system has begun to fight back. They are beginning to use spot checks, or in some cases verifying all accepted students. In a reflection of this interest, Kroll Security Group has launched a division dedicated solely to academic verifications. At SentryLink we have an increasing number of schools who rely on us for a criminal background check. Of course, this is all good news for the background screening industry. As the article notes, the National Association of Professional Background Screeners has seen its membership explode over recent years, with the number of […]