Criminal activity creates doubt about a person’s judgment, reliability and trustworthiness. By its very nature, past or current criminal activity calls into question a person’s ability or willingness to comply with laws, rules and regulations. Adjudication standards that disqualify individuals with a significant criminal history are supported by evidence that past adult criminal behavior predicts an increased likelihood of future criminal behavior. It is different with juveniles, however. The vast majority of juvenile offenders get into trouble only once or twice and they stop offending as they mature.

Screening out applicants with a significant criminal history protects the organization against more than just espionage. Organizations are vulnerable to a wide variety of crimes including embezzlement, procurement fraud, sabotage of computer systems and theft of government property. Other crimes such as drug dealing, illegal gambling, assault on coworkers, theft from other employees and prostitution also affect the workplace. National security organizations have a vested interest in maintaining high standards.

Most government organizations and private businesses do not know and cannot measure accurately how much they suffer from theft in the workplace by employees or outsiders. Professional business literature contains many accounts indicating that when companies do gather the necessary data, they are often surprised at the magnitude of losses they have been sustaining.