The Associated Press story, Background checks on the rise, takes a look at the dramatic increase in background checks starting with the federal government ones.
Already this year, 25 million Americans have had background checks by the federal government, a number that’s risen every year since the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Amid the rise, a notable shift has occurred: More civilians are now checked each year than criminals. And checks on the vast majority come back clean, even as states allot more money for their growing screening operations.
The article is a hodge-podge with an agenda. The article skips from talking about federal background checks to those done by school systems to background checking by churches.
The use of statistics is fast and loose. For example, the writer tells us that “a recent search of state-by-state records found 2,570 incidents of sexual misconduct in public schools between 2001 and 2005, despite background checks of teachers being required in many states.”
Sounds ominous. There are all those offenses happening despite background checks.
But the statistic used doesn’t support that. It’s meaningless because the relevant measure is not the number of incidents but the number of offenders. And it’s irresponsible because the only way to judge is to consider the number of offenders only from the states that mandate background checks.
The writer of the article isn’t explicit about it, but seems to push the agenda of the Ohio ACLU. Deep in the article there’s this quote from Christine Link, executive director of the ACLU of Ohio. “The sheer volume of them
Ms Link doesn’t get it. You use background checks to spot the red flags waving that tell you there might be a problem. Then you investigate further.
You’ll see more news stories like this, and investigative reports, too. The rise in background checks will surely bring out the people and organizations that need attention or have agendas.
But I’ll tell you this. I’d much rather work in a place that checked the background of my co-workers. I’d much rather rent in a building where my neighbors have been checked out. I think most people would agree.
it seems like a good thing to know who you are working with but it doesn’t always tell everything that you need to know