Background Checks

[ref1986]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Please read the entire context of what's been written before passing judgment. These crimes are the prime example of what I'm talking about and will be more readily and cheaply available on a sex-offender registry . . . Sex-registries are sufficient to ban the ones who have been caught before.

The problem is that's not the case, at least in PA. The sex offender registry does not include all persons convicted of sex offenses, in fact, it includes only a small minority. That's because it's the "nuclear option." It's a public record. A person on that registry will have his life essentially destroyed. He'll be ridiculed and harassed wherever he goes. It will be almost impossible to find a job. As a result, judges impose registration only for the most heinous and incorrigible offenders. It's reserved largely for sexual predators. Many people commit acts that should ban them from working with children, including officiating, but are not serious enough to destroy their lives. In PA, a first offense for exposing oneself to little girls, or child porn, or putting a hidden camera in the girls locker room, will probably not get the offender on the registry. But pretty clearly those guys should not be officiating. In addition, there are nonsexual crimes that will result in the offender being banned from working with children. A conviction for nonsexual child abuse will do it, and should.

Some mistakes follow you the rest of your life. If you work for a bank and get convicted of embezzlement, you'll never work for a bank again. It doesn't matter if you were 25 or 55 when you did it. If you dealt drugs when you were young and foolish, you'll never pass a background investigation for a federal law enforcement job. If you're convicted of exposing yourself to little girls, you'll never be a teacher, or, in PA, an official. I have no problem with that.