Credible Ways to Check Your Criminal Portfolio

A criminal record can ruin (or disturb) several things for you, including your chances of getting a job because several companies pay attention to criminal records when hiring. The primary aim of doing this is to make the workplace safe for everyone who works or interacts in it. There are also some economic opportunities that you can’t get due to those records.

A criminal portfolio generally contains a list of all a person’s crimes – that is, their criminal history. Employers often do background checks on potential employees during recruitment to know what criminal history they have and determine if they can work with it. However, you can access the portfolio yourself and check to know where you stand before making any application to a company with an offer.

Checking your criminal portfolio benefits you and the company you’re applying to. This article will explain the concept of a criminal portfolio more explicitly to help you understand.

Additionally, we will explain the types; there are different types of criminal portfolios where crimes are classified based on their severity. When you’re done reading, you will understand the criminal portfolio better, how to check it, and the benefits of checking.

A criminal portfolio, colloquially called RAP (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) sheet, is a record of an individual’s criminal history. The existence of information included in a criminal portfolio typically varies between countries and jurisdictions.

However, in most cases, a criminal portfolio will list non-expunged crimes and likely list traffic offenses like drunk driving. Where some countries limit the information included in a criminal portfolio to actual criminal convictions, some will include arrests and pending, dismissed, and acquitted charges.

Employers, financial institutions and lenders, investors, and many others use criminal portfolios to ascertain an individual’s trustworthiness. Your criminal portfolio may also be relevant if traveling internationally and charging and sentencing an individual for another crime.

Crimes can be classified in different ways, including subject matter like “rape and battery” classified as “crime against a person. They can also be grouped based on severity; there is no “stipulated” classification method – it is mainly done for convenient accessibility.

Classification according to severity is often the most substantive and important classification –also known as “grading.” In this type of classification, a criminal portfolio is grouped as felonies, infractions, misdemeanors, and felony-and-misdemeanors.

Meanwhile, some crimes, such as murder, are classified as “Malum in se” and considered evil. These crimes have a regulatory grading system and are graded higher than “malum prohibitum.”

These crimes are also serious but graded lower than felonies because the result is often less extreme, and the intent requirement is lower. Sentencing for misdemeanors includes at most one year of jail time, fines, probation, rehabilitation, or community service.

These crimes are also serious but graded lower than felonies because the result is often less extreme, and the intent requirement is lower. Sentencing for misdemeanors includes at most one year of jail time, fines, probation, rehabilitation, or community service.

Felony-inside misdemeanors are crimes the government can punish as a misdemeanor or felony, depending on the crime’s circumstances. At his or her discretion, the judge decides whether to prosecute the crime as a felony or misdemeanor. However, the prosecutor can sometimes decide whether a crime should be classified as a felony or misdemeanor.

Infractions are the least type of crime, covering minor offenses such as traffic violations, including driving with a suspended license. Due to their low severity, infractions often carry minor sentencing, including a fine or the alternative – like traffic school.

A comprehensive check of your criminal portfolio offers a wide range of benefits, including helping you gain your company’s trust. Having your criminal record on hand helps you prepare for unpalatable surprises – for you and your workplace. To clarify, below are the top reasons and benefits you stand to gain from checking your criminal portfolio.

When you have your criminal portfolio, you’ll be able to present accurate information about yourself to your organization. As a result, you’ll protect your company from being guilty of retention liability and negligent hiring.

Employers can face lawsuits for not knowing or knowing certain details about their employees; your portfolio helps prevent this. Through your criminal portfolio, your employer can ascertain that you’re worth hiring – facilitating your employer’s faith in your honesty.

Providing an accurate criminal portfolio generally helps create a safer workplace, thus preventing workplace violence. The U.S. DoJ (Department of Justice) conducted a study that showed that over 1.7 million workdays are lost due to workplace violence.

Consequently, the company loses millions in wages, from public image issues, legal expenses, and productivity loss, among other things. You can help your employer provide a safe work environment by providing your criminal portfolio.

Providing an accurate criminal portfolio helps your organization build an honest and productive workforce – in other words, it increases job application quality. Knowledge of your criminal records means your employer can experience fewer misstatements and discrepancies in job applications.

Thus, high-quality job applications ensure substantial company improvement, and employers can build a workforce of honest, diligent individuals. Additionally, companies can avoid losses linked to employee dishonesty when they have employees’ criminal portfolios on hand.

Criminal portfolios establish the credibility and trustworthiness of employers, which reassure customers of their safety. When employers have their employees’ criminal portfolios, they inevitably ensure the public’s safety. Thus, you can help maintain your organization’s trust and reputation in the community by checking and providing an accurate criminal portfolio.

First, you are within your rights to request information held against you; this is known as a “Subject Access Request.” While this often depends on government agencies, it is your right to verify your information. However, you need to obtain this information correctly to ensure you have the correct one.

Providing inaccurate criminal records is as bad as (or even worse) not providing one. That said, below are the best ways to check your criminal portfolio to ensure you have accurate information.

You can send a request to certain government agencies for your criminal portfolio with your fingerprints. These agencies can include the FBI or the relevant state’s Department of Justice, depending on the kind of record you may have.

You can apply for a copy of your criminal portfolio from your local police; this is the easiest and cheapest method. If there’s no information, you will get a certificate stating that no information is currently held about you on the Police National Computer.

Otherwise, you will get a list of all the information, including spent and unspent convictions. Meanwhile, you can go further to ask what information, in particular, is held by the police, including allegations, arrests, and Not Guilty findings.

You can also obtain your criminal records through a vulnerable sector check, depending on your record type. A Vulnerable Sector Check typically provides criminal convictions from local databases, CPIC, or both.

You can also get a summary of convictions for five years, absolute and conditional discharges, and outstanding entries. Additionally, you can get non-conviction information for exceptional disclosure and a conviction for which you’ve been granted a pardon.

Although there have been major improvements made towards accessing criminal portfolios, there are still several shortcomings remaining.

• You may face certain data quality challenges as there is a possibility of accessing incomplete or inaccurate information in your portfolio.
• To ensure you got the right information, you may need to obtain it from different sources and compare the information. Comparing different pieces of information you got from different sources can be utterly challenging.
• You will have to sort through myriads of different pieces of information available to find what you’re looking for.
• Sometimes, records give a false appearance of multiple arrests, particularly in jurisdictions that use centralized booking and fingerprint an arrestee twice.
• If you have juvenile records, you may not be able to access them – at least not without a court order.

A criminal portfolio consists of summary documents, often referred to as “RAP sheets,” consisting of an individual’s interactions with the law. It is a government’s version of an individual’s criminal history containing a list of warrants, arrests, charges, sentencing information, convictions, and prior deportations. Accessing and having your criminal portfolio on hand helps you prevent discrepancies or situations that can result in bigger issues.

We’ve looked at the best ways to access your criminal records and the benefits of doing so. We believe that, by now, you have a good grasp of criminal portfolios, their importance, and how to check yours.