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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Best way to ask if a person lacks a criminal record in a form on a website

I have a website and there's an online form to be filled out by people who visit the site. I want to make sure that a certain person lacks a criminal record (that he hasn't one). So I put this: Lack of a criminal record YES NO If a person chooses YES (default) then it means that he has no criminal record and if he chooses NO, then it means that he has one. Correct? Also the reason why I'm asking is because at first I put it like this: Clean criminal record YES NO Then I thought that it's probably wrong. Because in this case even if a person chooses YES, it would mean that a person had a criminal record once, but not anymore. Though it's more of a legal question maybe.
  

Top answer

Anonymous Lack of a criminal record YES NO No. Anonymous Clean criminal record YES NO No. Use this: Criminal record YES NO

— Mister Micawber

  • Anonymous Lack of a criminal record YES NO No.
  • Anonymous Clean criminal record YES NO No.
  • Use this: Criminal record YES NO
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8 Answers
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AnonymousLack of a criminal record YES NO
No.
AnonymousClean criminal record YES NO
No.

Use this: Criminal record YES NO
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Why people afraid individuals who have had a criminal record ? They don't beleive in peoples ability to recover and become better ?
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Why are people afraid of individuals who have had a criminal record? They don't believe in peoples' ability to recover and become better citizens.
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Don't say 'lack'.
If you lack a criminal record, the word implies that it is good to have one.
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Mister Micawber has the right answer. You just need to simplify it.

Don't ask a question that expects to confirm a positive (clean) or negative (lack) answer. Simply ask the question. "Do you have a criminal record? Have you ever been convicted of a crime? Criminal conviction? Criminal record?" or similar.

If you use "Lack of/clean" in conjunction with "criminal re
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Ask the question as clearly as possible. You are asking people to check your understanding of what you've come up with. That in itself should be a very good indication that it is too complicated! "Do you have a criminal record [yes / no]", is the only thing I think you should consider.
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I would say something like, "Do you have an existing criminal record? YES NO"
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Anonymous I would say something like, "Do you have an existing criminal record? YES NO"
Do you have a criminal record? YES/NO
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