Tue, June 8th, 2010 - 5:50 am - By Gordon Basichis
Background Checks involving the sex offender registry can also be more complex that it first appears. In some states a young man over eighteen have consensual sex with his girlfriend, who is, say, seventeen, can suffer the misfortune of having irate parents press charges, which results on his being placed on the sexual offender list. I would consider this not only a tough break but unfair, considering the circumstances.
But then there are the other people on the sexual offenders registry who have committed all kinds of criminal acts, ranging from rape to child molestation. These are truly felonious acts of severe misconduct and employers should be aware of these past criminal records when considering hiring a job applicant. Sex offenders can prove toxic to the work environment. To be kind, they are viewed with disdain at best with very few fellow employees having the tolerance to deal with them as peers.
I blogged about sex offenders last month when I wrote an article about a census worker who was discovered to be on the sexual offenders registry. The article was entitled,appropriately enough, Census Worker Identified as Sex Offender. Not a pretty story. And if you have children, not someone you want in your home under any pretext, yet alone when he is working for the federal government. But I digress.
As a background checking service for some inexplicable reason we have noticed that sex offender his on the various background checks appear to come in waves. As I noted, there is no rhyme or reason, but there will be no sex offenders in the background checks and then suddenly there will be a flurry, stemming from different clients in different parts of the country. It’s odd, but true. At least for us.
In all, we can understand that some people have been listed unfairly on the sexual offenders registry. But I would rather see a fallible sex registry than one where sex offenders are not properly identified. But as I said, the sex offender registry is not always as simple as it may appear. Each state has the prerogative to list what it believes to be sex offenses. Some states are more lenient than others.
With that in mind, Oregon State has modified is sexual offender background checks. The following information should prove useful to employers conducting preemployment screening for their job candidates.
Please be aware that the state of Oregon no longer releases information on sex offenders that are ON supervision; the latest dataset obtained only contains offenders OFF supervision.
OR Statute ORS 181.592 prohibits the Sex Offender Registry from releasing information on persons under supervision for their first sex crime conviction or adjudication, during their supervisory period.