As much as we would like to believe that everyone will treat everyone else as an equal and judge them on equal footing, the reality is that discrimination still exists in many parts of our nation.  This is why so many laws have been passed across the country regarding housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and discrimination in services.  One particularly offensive aspect of employment discrimination is criminal background check discrimination.

Criminal background check discrimination occurs when only select people are subjected to a criminal background check based on their race, age, sex, appearance, or sexual orientation.  This can be due to the mistaken belief that only certain individual are generally capable of committing crimes or because the hiring agent is hoping that something adverse will appear in the background check so that they have a legitimate reason for not hiring the individual.  Both of these reasons for conducting a background check on an individual is not only biased, but against the law as well.

To ensure that criminal background check discrimination does not occur due to the misguided principles of one of their employees, many businesses have made conducting a background check on anyone that applies for a position with the company mandatory and the refusal to submit to a background check is an immediate disqualification from employment.  This helps to ensure that all applicants are treated consistently and fairly when it comes to the criminal background check.