Background Checks

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Hence my question starting with "other than the warm-fuzzy." Making people feel better isn't enough of a reason to implement a policy that costs money, IMO. I'd say it's actually doing more harm than good if it makes people feel better for no real reason.

And reading the article linked above didn't do anything for me either. Unless someone show me two things, I remain unconvinced:

1. There is a statistical correlation between those who commit such crimes as fraud, theft, "falsities," and even violent crimes with those who commit sexual crimes against minors.

and

2. There is a vulnerability to sports officials in particular, in their capacity as sports officials, that can be at least partly solved by background checks.

I have doubts on both, to be honest.

I completely agree in principle. There is really no real reason to have a policy of background checks. But the problem too is that we are in a litigious culture. If anything happens to someone, we have a tendency to blame someone no matter how much they are to really blame. And I bet that if these policies were not in place, the minute someone gets in trouble or an incident happens, a lack of a policy would likely be apart of a lawsuit. That being said, it really does not hurt to have a policy. You get to check information that might be seen as threatening and most people feel good that organizations are doing something about it. But in a perfect world there is no need for any policy. But people are so paranoid of what happens with their children.

I just remember when I was a kid, we had no cell phones, GPS systems and we would be all over the neighborhood with no parental supervision and someone how we were not harmed or killed by some child predator. I am not saying things did not happen to kids of my era, but it was hardly a stranger it was a family member or a friend of the family. But because of the media attention, we have people convinced that there are people lurking in the shadows that you need to be the most concerned with.

Peace