There is much discussion about whether criminal background checks should be allowed or whether they violate an individual’s right to privacy, how they should be used, whether the information in them should prevent employment of anyone with a criminal record forever or for a set period of time.
I think once a person has committed a crime and has been convicted, the record should always be available so that employers can determine whether they want to hire the employee for the particular position if they have committed a particular kind of crime. Forensic psychologist Vern Quincey agrees with me. He thinks employers should have this information available when making hiring decisions. In order to ensure the quality of the care that nursing home residents will receive, we must hire employees who are capable of working with elderly residents—although it is difficult to predict who can and who shouldn’t work with the elderly. One measure to determine whether someone should be employed is their prior criminal history—wouldn’t you want to know if a potential employee was guilty of abusing an elderly person within the last year? Of course, that is the very clear case. Apparently what is less clear, although I don’t agree, is whether a conviction unrelated to elder abuse which occurred 20 years ago should be considered in the employer’s decision to hire this person. I personally think all criminal convictions and information about a potential employee should be available. If more information is available to the employer, a more informed decision can be made. Bryan Robinson proposes that all potential employees should have a criminal background check if they want to work in a nursing home, including janitors and maintenance workers. I agree. If a nursing home is considering hiring an employee with a criminal record, then some kind of psychological profiling should be conducted to determine whether this individual will potentially abuse the elderly he/she is working with. Also, according to Vern Quincy, all arrest records should be available since they are more complete than the conviction record which would be obtained after a plea bargain.
Since there is a shortage of workers which will only get worse with an increasing population of elderly, there may be times when a nursing home must hire someone who has a criminal record. But under no circumstances should a person be hired who has committed elder abuse previously. Some of the “rules of thumb” proposed by Vern Quincy for hiring employees with a past criminal record are: conduct a clinical assessment (using the history and diagnostic tests) and an actuarial assessment (statistically determine if the offender is likely to commit the same crime, to determine whether they will commit elder abuse). One important consideration according to Quincy is to determine if any prior crime is committed against “a vulnerable population of people.”
According to Vern Quincy, psychopaths have usually committed more crimes (a larger variety of crimes), and have started at an earlier age. Psychopaths are more likely to commit another crime and be abusive if they are repeat offenders. Likewise, if someone has not committed another offense in more than five years since the original offense, that should be considered. The bottom line is that before any potential employees with a criminal record are hired, serious consideration should be given to what was the original crime, when did it occur, what was the nature of the crime, who was involved, was the crime against a vulnerable population and therefore is there a likelihood of another crime being committed by this same person.
Basically, I understand that there may be a shortage of workers at nursing homes; however, I don’t think we should sacrifice the health and well being of our nursing home population. I think the nursing home owners should pay more money for salaries and therefore entice more employees to work in nursing homes. I think the laws of supply and demand work—higher pay for nursing home workers when there is a shortage and lower pay when there are too many available workers.
What Can we learn from Criminal Background Checks. An Interview with Forensic Psychologist Vern Quinsey
http://www.preventelderabuse.org/nexus/bgchecks
Roboinson, Bryan. ABC News “He Choked Me:’ Why Some Elderly Attacks Go Unnoticed. March 7, 2002. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=91848
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