When you want to find out about a person you are going on a date with or even about your spouse, you have some resources available to you to make this a lot easier and more efficient. You want to be sure that you get accurate information when you look into someone’s past, their criminal record and the kinds of things that have defined their life. It’s not always prudent to just trust what they say, and if they have given you reason to doubt their word or you just want to be cautious, then you can use background checks and public records to find out more about them.
What You’ll Find
You might be surprised at all the data and records that are available to the public for any given person. If you were to perform a background check on yourself, it might shock you what records are public knowledge. It works the same way with other people when you perform a background check on them. You can find out about things in their past they have tried to cover up or just won’t talk about. While you may not want to invade their privacy, or ask them probing questions, you do need to keep yourself safe, and sometimes performing a background check is the only way to do that.
You may find criminal records for the people you look up. You can find out about crimes they have committed, the sentence they received, how much criminal behavior they have engaged in and court records.
You can also find out where they have lived, who they have been married to, who their children are, what other relatives they have and what kind of life they may have had. Some people are ashamed of their family because their family’s actions reflect poorly on them.
You may also find out about their social media imprint. You can use this information to learn about what sites they have accounts on and then comb through those to find out about the kind of person they really are. It can be difficult to find a specific person among the millions of other users on social media, and the dozens of others who may share their name, so performing this kind of check can help you narrow down your search and pinpoint who they really are and what they have been up to.
Using the Information
The kind of information you glean from background checks and public records won’t do you much good unless you know how to utilize it. You should use the information to make a decision as to whether you want to continue making this person a part of your life or your children’s lives. A lot of people perform background checks on prospective girlfriends and boyfriends for their children. They may check out the neighbors to find out if they are registered sex offenders.
What you do with that information is up to you, but you should be using it to keep yourself safe and to decide if you still want to communicate with these people or keep them as part of your circle of friends. You may also want to confront them about their past and find out why they haven’t been forthright with you, especially in the case of a spouse or significant other. Opening up that conversation can reveal a lot about them and actually bring the two of you closer together, depending on how they handle the information you present.
You should think of background checks and public records searches as tools you can use to protect yourself and your family.
