Background Checks

[Adam]

Originally Posted by ref1986

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.

This is the information I'm looking for. Frankly, it changes quite a bit for me. If you're telling me there are sex crimes against children that don't show up on a registry, then background checks make sense. Let me add this very important caveat, though.

They won't solve the problem, and they probably won't prevent anything at all. What I have yet to hear about is a previously convicted sex offender using his capacity as an official to gain access to a child for the purpose of abusing that child. I've read about officials who committed these offenses, but never in their capacity or because of the access they enjoyed as officials.

My concern is that some are going to want to stretch the disqualifying offenses to include things that should not be included. Some say add "murder," assault, etc. While I'm not against adding "murder," I think there are other crimes that have no bearing on whether a man or woman can act as an official. The article referenced in this thread was written by a man who seems indignant that a man convicted of fraud could be an official. WTF?