New 1st Date Trend, Criminal Record Searches

Going on a first date used to mean checking the outfit, confirming the reservation, and maybe sending a screenshot of the person to the group chat. Now, for millions of Americans, first date violence is part of the calculation, and criminal-record searches are increasingly becoming part of the pre-date routine. A new DatingAdvice.com survey of 1,016 U.S. adults found that 40% have researched a potential date’s criminal records before meeting them. Men and women reported doing it at nearly the same rate, 36% and 38%, respectively, while younger daters were even more likely to investigate before showing up. Forty-six percent of adults ages 18 to 24 said they had conducted a background check on a date, followed by 42% of people ages 25 to 34.

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The survey also found that the digging sometimes changes what happens next. Among people who searched a date’s background, roughly 1 in 12, or 8.5%, said what they discovered caused them to cancel the date. Regionally, 41% of Midwestern respondents said they had researched a date’s court records, followed by 39% in the Northeast, 36% in the South and 34% in the West.

Those numbers do not prove that violent first-date cases are causing more people to search court databases. However, the safety concerns behind the behavior are not happening in a vacuum. Pew Research Center previously found that women under 50 who have used online dating report substantial levels of unwanted behavior. Fifty-six percent said they had received unwanted sexually explicit content, 43% had been contacted after saying they were not interested, and 11% said someone threatened them with physical harm through a dating site or app. Overall, 66% experienced at least one of the unwanted behaviors Pew measured.

Source: Baller Alert