The rise of the information age has made it increasingly easier and cost-effective to conduct criminal background checks on potential employees. According to Adams (2011), this ease of access is due to the fact that investigators no longer have to dig through actual court records. But is this type of discrimination actually beneficial to a company, and what is the greatest cost to society when so many companies engage in the same type of discrimination? Costs and Benefits According to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (2010), 73% of companies surveyed conduct background checks on all potential employees, and an additional 19% reported that they conduct background checks on selected applicants ( p.3). Among surveyed companies that conduct background checks, 5% said an arrest that did not result in a conviction was "very influential" in the hiring decision, while 22% said the same for a conviction for a non-violent offense. . For a violent crime conviction, 95% of companies surveyed indicate that the offense was very influential in the hiring decision (p.5). With 65 million Americans having a conviction or arrest on their criminal record, approximately one in five Americans are involved in some way with a criminal background check when seeking employment (Adams, 2011 ). Pre-employment background checks are largely justified by the reasoning that a criminal record is an indicator of a person's character, and hiring a known felon presents a legal liability to a company. According to Buckhoff, “employers can be held responsible for the criminal acts of their employees, in certain circumstances” (2003). What is missing from this reasoning is the ideology of human individuality – the hypothesis...... middle of article......rightoncrime.com/2011/05/the-widespread -use-of-criminal-background- controls in the information age/Blumstein, A. and Nakamura, K. (2009). Redemption in an era of widespread criminal background checks. Retrieved April 20, 2014 from http://www.nij.gov/journals/263/pages/redemption.aspxBuckhoff, TA and Colson, RH (2003). PREVENT FRAUD BY PERFORMING BACKGROUND CHECKS. CPA Journal, 73(11), 52. Carson, E. J. (2010). Off the record: Why the EEOC should change its guidelines for employers considering employees' criminal records during the hiring process. Journal Of Corporation Law, 36 (1), 221-237. Society for Human Resources Management. (2010). Background Check: Criminal Background Check SHRM Survey. [Computer software]. Accessed April 20, 2014, from http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Pages/BackgroundCheckCriminalChecks.aspx