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Background Screening Glossary
January 20, 2022
The background screening industry, like any industry, comes with its own vernacular.
Check out these commonly used words, phrases, and acronyms to see how many you know, and bookmark this background screening glossary for future use.
| AAMVA | American Association Of Motor Vehicle Administrators |
| ACV | AAMVAnet Code Dictionary |
| AFIS | Automated Fingerprint Identification System |
| AICPA | American Institute of Certified Public Accountants |
| Alias | False name used in substitution of a legal name on official documents and for official purposes. May also be noted as AKA (as known as) records. |
| AO | Administrative Office of The United States Courts |
| AOC | Administrative Office of The Court |
| API | Application Program Interface |
| Arbitration | The hearing and settlement of a dispute between opposing parties by a third party whose decision the parties have agreed to accept. |
| Arrest Warrant | A written order of the court which is made on behalf of the state, or United States, and is based upon a complaint issued pursuant to statute and/or court rule and which commands a law enforcement officer to arrest a person. |
| Assault | Intentional or threatened infliction of injury to another. Aggregated classification is assignment when the injury is considered serious or when injury is threatened or carried out with the use of a deadly / dangerous weapon. Simple classification is assigned when the injury inflicted or threatened is not serious and a weapon is not used. |
| ATF | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives |
| Bankruptcy | Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings. |
| BOP | (Federal) Bureau of Prisons |
| BSAAP | Background Screening Agency Accreditation Program |
| CDLIS | Commercial Driver’s License Information System |
| CFPB | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau |
| Civil Case | A case between private litigants concerning personal wrongs, generally where the losing party must compensate the prevailing party with money or other property. |
| Concurrent Sentence | Upon conviction for multiple crimes, a criminal sentence is served at the same time as another criminal sentence, rather than one after the other. |
| Consecutive Sentence | Upon conviction for multiple crimes, criminal sentences must be served one after the other, rather than at the same time. |
| Conviction | The result of a criminal proceeding in which it is the judgment of the judge or jury that the accused is guilty of an offense. Often used to differentiate between one convicted of an offense or where one enters a plea of guilty on an offense charged. |
| CPA | Certified Public Accountant |
| CPA | Cost Per Acquisition |
| CRA | Consumer Reporting Agency |
| Criminal Case | A charge filed by a prosecutor against a defendant concerning violation of criminal law. The act of violating a criminal law is an offense against the community, not a private wrong |
| CSAT | Customer Satisfaction |
| DCA | DirectConnect API |
| DEA | Drug Enforcement Administration |
| Dismiss | Termination of a case. The court may enter an order dismissing a case because the prosecuting attorney for the state may dismiss the matter for reasons such as lack of evidence, death of a witness, or because the matter is to be re-filed due to the original indictment being defective, etc. |
| Disposition | The act or the power of settling a matter finally; to bring something to its conclusion. |
| DMF | Death Master File |
| DOB | Date of Birth |
| DOC | Department of Corrections |
| DOT | Department of Transportation |
| DPPA | Driver’s Privacy Protection Act – A federal law that regulates how information from DMV records can be released and shared. The DPPA regulates how motor vehicle departments release driver records and vehicle records. The DPPA also regulates how a recipient of DMV records can share information with another party. |
| EEO | Equal Employment Opportunity Act – Legislation which requires United States employers to provide equal employment opportunity to all persons regardless of ethnicity, gender or age. |
| Expunge | Process by which the record of a criminal case is destroyed or sealed after expiration of time. |
| FCRA | Fair Credit Reporting Act – The FCRA is a federal law designed to protect individuals, by promoting accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of every Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA). |
| Felony | A serious criminal offense for which the minimum sentence is one year. |
| Fine | A monetary penalty, which may include forfeiture or penalty recoverable in a civil action, and in criminal convictions, maybe in addition to imprisonment. |
| FINRA | Financial Industry Regulatory Authority |
| FRS | Flexible Research System |
| FTA | Free Trade Agreement |
| HRBP | Human Resources Business Partner |
| JSON | JavaScript Object Notation |
| JWT | JASON Web Token |
| LOB | Line of Business |
| LOE | Level of Effort |
| LW | Last Week |
| MSA | Metropolitan Statistical Areas |
| MVR | Motor Vehicle Record |
| NAFTA | North American Free Trade Agreement |
| NAPBS | National Association of Professional Background Screeners |
| NCSC | National Center for State Courts |
| NICS | National Instant Background Check System |
| NODS | National Open Court Data Standards |
| NSOR | National Sex Offender Registry |
| OFAC | Office of Foreign Assets Control |
| OIG | Office of Inspector General |
| OKR | Objective & Key Results |
| OLA | Operating Level Agreement |
| PBSA | Professional Background Screening Association |
| PII | Personal Identifying Information |
| POC | Proof of Concept |
| QA | Quality Assurance |
| SLA | Service Level Agreement |
| SOC | System and Organization Controls |
| SOR | Sex Offender Registry |
| SOW | Statement of Work |
| SQL | Sales Qualified Lead |
| SSA | Social Security Administration |
| SSDI | Social Security Death Index |
| SSN | Social Security Number |
| T&M | Time & Materials |
| TAM | Total Addressable Market |
| TAT | Turnaround Time |
| THD | Trade House Data |
| WSDL | Web Services Description Language |
| YOB | Year of Birth |
Have more terms you’d like to see added to the background screening glossary?
