What is a 168?
I enjoy listening to people when they speak about their profession. Acronyms have become so common place in the working world that it almost requires a dictionary for each new employee to understand what people are saying.
Why would the background check profession be any different? It is not. In the past week I have heard from not less than a half dozen prospects refer to the types of searches they are conducting as National Criminal Searches and they believe that they are receiving a report that checks every court in the United States. They firmly believe that their supplier is checking at the County Court level and when we compare their reports they are not pleased that what they thought and what they are receiving are not the same.
So: What is a 168? A 168 is the number of hours in a week – which is terminology generally used in the staffing profession and more specifically within the Security Officer profession regarding the hours of coverage per shift in a week.
Answer: 24 hours a day (times) 7 days a week (equals) 168 hours
Let me shed some light on the terms:
Federal – State – National
with regards to criminal records.
Federal: A federal crime is an action that is illegal according to federal law, which means it is a crime throughout the entire country no matter where it is committed.
State: a state crime is something against the law of a given state; state crimes vary greatly throughout the country — as do the punishments attached to them.
National: a commonly used term meaning the United States – which does not have any correlation to our court systems. In other words – slang. J
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Federal Courts |
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Note: Sometimes a federal crime and a state crime overlap and the perpetrator could be charged with either offense; the United States Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, though, provides that the federal government take authority over the case, which means the offender will be tried through the federal system.
Some common examples of Federal crimes include the following:
- Bribery
- Computer crimes/hacking
- Counterfeiting of currency
- Embezzlement
- Forgery
- Immigration violations
- Insurance Fraud
- Kidnapping
- Mail fraud and other crimes concerning the postal service
- Racketeering
- Securities fraud
- Tax evasion and fraud
