TPC Journal-V6, Issue 4- FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor /Volume 6, Issue 4 377 CACREP-accredited counseling programs to examine use of CBCs. Specifically, they sought to gather data about how counseling programs use criminal background checks and what resources are consulted when deciding how and when to use CBCs. At the time of their study and within their sample, five CACREP-accredited counseling programs were utilizing CBCs. Alarmingly, none of the programs that indicated use of CBCs answered the question about having established criteria to decide how criminal background check results are used. Scholars within other human services fields have provided commentary or empirically explored the use of CBCs in their related training programs. Burns, Frank-Stromborg, Teytelman, and Herren (2004) wrote about the use of CBCs in the field of nursing. At the time of their commentary, most state nursing licensure boards made CBCs mandatory for nurses in order to practice. In contrast with nursing licensing boards, most nursing training programs had not made CBCs a requirement due to not having sufficient guidance in how to use the results of CBCs. Farnsworth and Springer (2006) empirically investigated the use of CBCs by nursing programs. They surveyed 258 nursing schools from across the United States and found that fewer than 50% of the surveyed schools required background checks. Only 8% of the schools that conducted CBCs used them as a part of the admission process. For those that did obtain background checks, there was no standard way to process the results and no universal guidelines were available on how to interpret results. Farnsworth and Springer suggested that schools considering CBCs should seek legal counsel and communicate with other programs using CBCs. They also recommended programs require a criminal self-disclosure in addition to a background check to determine consistencies between self- disclosures and the results of CBCs (Farnsworth & Springer, 2006). According to Kleshinski, Case, Davis, Heinrich, and Witzburg (2011), approximately 113 medical schools used background checks at the time of their commentary. Medical schools have benefitted from using CBCs by detecting patterns of behaviors that may impede a student’s ability to practice and best serve future patients. Kleshinski and colleagues found that common patterns across medical schools using CBCs included: (1) individually considering each situation by factoring in variables such as date and nature of offense; and (2) asking students about past criminal behaviors on admission applications. Importantly, there may be discrepancies between what students report on applications and what their CBCs show; therefore, solely relying on self-report could be problematic. Within the field of sports science, Weuve, Martin, and White (2008) described many of the same concerns and uncertainties. They suggested that common reasons to conduct CBCs include “promotion of a safe school environment, protection of patients, clients, and student-athletes, because it is required of clinical facilities, and it enhanced student advisement and compliance with state or federal law” (Weuve et al., 2008, p. 28). These authors also speculated that programs may not conduct CBCs because of certain state and federal law, fear of further marginalizing minorities, and due to minimal resources to help the process be informed. Although these suggestions and concerns seem to be well-conceptualized across fields, few studies have taken the next step to empirically examine these issues. Based on previous literature, there is consistent concern with a lack of universal policies across graduate training programs related to the use of CBCs. Additionally, only one study has empirically investigated how often and in what ways CBCs are being used with counseling graduate school applications (Erwin & Toomey, 2005). Unfortunately, this study is outdated and may leave the field of counseling without adequate evidence-based support to enhance their gatekeeping processes.