Disclosure of Criminal Records

This CCJS Public Seminar will be delivered by Professor Elena Larrauri from Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Professor Larrauri is Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona).

Her research interests are criminal records, community sentences and gender analysis of criminal justice system. She has been awarded Fulbright-la Caixa and Alexander von Humboldt Scholarship.

She was president of the European Society of Criminology (2007-2010). During the academic year 2013-2014, she is visiting fellow to All Souls College from University of Oxford. She is a founding member of the Criminology and Criminal Justice System Research Group.

Abstract

Criminal background checks are usually carried out in order to assist an employer when assessing whether to hire someone and in order to provide information to the general public for the purpose of crime prevention.

However, the disclosure of this information might also infringe the right to privacy of an offender who has already served his sentence, and seriously damage his prospects of reintegration.

Although convictions are, in one sense, public information, they are also ‘protected personal data’. Even more complicated is the status of other information, which technically is not about about a conviction, but which nevertheless reveals a ‘criminal’ past. Whether someone has been ‘cautioned’ is an example of such information.

Is there any way that we could try to build a ‘fair disclosure’ system of criminal record information? Does the European Court of Human Rights give some guidance?

Attendance at this event is free.