Can criminal records really be expunged?
10/23/2008Having a criminal record can be damaging to several aspects of one's life. It can make it especially difficult to find employment; indeed, some jobs are unattainable for individuals who have been in trouble with the law. However, if one chooses to expunge their record, then they will no longer be considered a criminal by potential employers - in theory.
The option of expungement is open to subjects of prior criminal investigations or proceedings in over 40 states in the country. Although the exact meaning of expungement varies from state to state, in general, expungement is defined as the sealing and/or destruction of a record of criminal conviction. Unfortunately, once you have established a criminal record - even if it has been expunged - it can stick around much longer than local laws would lead you to believe.
When most businesses and companies hire new employees, they perform criminal background checks on the potential hirees. However, criminal records may be obtained from a variety of places. In fact, private companies these days can purchase public court records - which were once too obscure for just anybody to come across - to compile into digitized databases. With so many copies of criminal records databases floating around, there are considerable faults in the system. Even if a job applicant has had their record expunged, the database providing the information for the potential employer's criminal background check may not contain the most up-to-date information, which could lead to rejection for a perfectly capable, responsible applicant who just happened to have made a mistake when he was young and naive.
ABC News recently reported on a man who was denied a manager's position at an Arby's restaurant in Mariniette, Wisconsin, because he had been convicted of battery in 1995. Although his record had been expunged, old information about the conviction turned up in his criminal background check. The man took a lower paying job and, like a growing number of people in his predicament, filed a federal lawsuit.
It is not just people with expunged records that are losing employment because of the inconsistencies of services that offer background checks, there have been cases in which people were fired because a background check resulted in records from people with similar first and last names.
It is unfortunate that it is not always the case that those with expunged records have equal rights to employment just as anyone with a clean record should. This indicates a more general problem that is emerging more and more in this age of technology: an enormous amount of information has already been amassed in digital form and updating preexisting information is many times more difficult than creating new information. This is due to the fact that a document may be copied with a click of the mouse, but replacing defunct information with a more updated version can only happen in one location - that is, if ten copies of a criminal record have been made, and the record has been expunged, only one coy of the record can immediately be expunged. As a result, expungement is no longer a reliable way to clear one's record; once someone has a criminal record, it will stay with him throughout his life.
