True crime

Normally, the world of screening and security has me reading reports on fraud and stupid corporate stunts. Every now and then, though, my Google Alerts throw something juicier up on my screen. That’s what happened this week.

A blog named MomLogic published a post by Dr. Wendy Walsh with the title, “Sandra Didn’t Believe the Background Check.” The supermarket tabloids could not have done better.

Here are the basics of the tawdry story. When Sandra Bullock met Jesse James, her tattoo-sporting, biker husband, he was married, for the second time. His wife was pregnant. He had two children by his first wife.

Now several women have come forward claiming affairs with Jesse. Sandra Bullock is consulting divorce attorneys.

There’s no reference in the blog post to any actual background check. So what does one more Hollywood divorce have to do with background checks and with you? Here’s the answer from Dr. Walsh.

“It’s an old adage, but: If you want to predict someone’s future behavior, look no further than their past behavior. As Sigmund Freud so brilliantly observed, ‘Human beings have a compulsion to repeat.'”

That’s one reason we do background checks. Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Background checks help you […]