People with criminal records obviously want to reform criminal records checks. They face considerable bias and discrimination when they apply for jobs and their offence is disclosed in DBS checks. Close to a third (30%) of recruiters will automatically reject an applicant with a criminal record and still more will think twice before recruiting someone with a record. But DBS checks disclose many old offences or offences which have no relevance to the job role. And one in four people in the UK have some kind of criminal record.
We were interested in finding out whether the public shared our and defendants’ concerns about the fairness of criminal records. So we commissioned Public First to poll over a thousand people representative of the general public and to ask the same questions of the same number of victims of crime. We asked them for how long they thought a person should have to disclose a crime for which they were convicted/cautioned to employers. The majority thought mandatory disclosure should end far earlier than it currently does. Victims were even more supportive of preventing disclosure than the general public.
Children (under 18s) who are involved in fights can be convicted of an offence called affray. That conviction will be disclosed on some criminal records checks for life. If the person wants to read in their grandchild’s school aged 60 or become a lawyer aged 40, the childhood affray conviction will come up. Most of those we polled thought that by the time a thirteen-year-old convicted of affray (“Alex”) is 25, the conviction should not need to be disclosed. Support for non-disclosure increased as more time passed since the offence.
Sending an unsolicited nude photo to someone can result in a lifelong criminal record even if there was no court hearing. We polled views on how long a nineteen-year-old who admitted to sending such a photo and accepted a police caution (“Charlie”) should have to disclose it. The majority polled felt they should not have to disclose the crime six years later and two-thirds felt it should not be disclosed aged 60.
People polled were equally in favour of the government not disclosing short prison sentences a certain number of years after release. Yet currently prison sentences of any length are disclosed for ever on standard and enhanced criminal records checks (of which nearly 5 million are issued every year). Respondents felt that we needed a criminal records system, but that our current system made it difficult for people with records to reintegrate into society.
The human cost of our current criminal records system is high as this example shows:
When Danielle was in her early twenties, she was in a severely abusive relationship. Isolated from loved ones, beaten, and even kidnapped, she was ultimately coerced into stealing £10,000 from her father’s business account. When the case went to court, Danielle pled guilty to ensure her father was repaid and she received a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
For years, the weight of a permanent criminal record left Danielle feeling hopeless about her future. She believed she had no real career prospects and struggled to move forward. Eventually, she decided to pursue a degree in psychology, with hopes of becoming a police criminal profiler. Even now, after working hard to turn her life around, she faces the reality that her record may well prevent her from ever entering the field.
Transform Justice works with the charity Unlock to run www.FairChecks.org.uk, a movement advocating for reform of criminal records checks. It’s open to all. Do join us!
