You can do cheap background checks on people online and if you join a public records web site you can do absolutely free background checks as often as you want to.
It's now possible to background check almost anyone you meet
Wouldn't you like to know if someone close to you had a criminal record? Do you think that it would be a good idea to pay someone to do work for you if they have been made bankrupt? What about letting a sex offender get close to your children? It's not that difficult to find out these things about people today and it's often possible to do absolutely free or very cheap background checks. If it's that easy and cheap then why not make a habit of doing background checks on everyone.
How many times do you have to get lied to and mistreated before you stop believing in human nature? For most people the answer to that is "not many" and I'm guessing that you are the same. Most people are good, honest and trustworthy, or that's what I believe at least. Unfortunately there are a small number of people who are not as honest as you would like them to be and it's this small minority that can do a lot of damage to you as an individual and to society as a whole. It only takes one bad experience with a person like this and you start to loose faith in everyone but you can take steps to avoid this situation.
Checking someone's background is a lot easier than you might think
You might think that doing a background check on someone takes a long time and is very expensive. Until very recently this was true. Checking someone out involved either doing a lot of legwork yourself or hiring someone to do it for you. There were some things that only a private detective could do so you had no choice if that's what you wanted. Most of the information that you need to do a background check on someone like criminal records, arrest warrants and sex offender records is now available online in public records web sites so in most normal circumstances you can find what you need very quickly and surprisingly cheaply too.
You can use public records or court records web sites to perform background searches, do criminal records or arrest warrant searches, sex offender records and all sorts of interesting things. Some court records sites charge you for the searches that you do and the good ones generally give good value for money.
Have fun with public records
You can find good public records web sites where you can pay for searches as you do them. The reputable ones can provide very good value for money and until recently this is the way I conducted all my background checks. The problem with this approach is that the more success you have at finding information about people, the more searches you find yourself wanting to do. When this happens it makes more sense to belong to a public records membership site where you can do as many searches as you want to but you only pay the same small fee. It works out much cheaper for me and I suspect that it will for you too.
It's not just about the cost. When you can do as much background checking as you want, you will find that you use it more and more to find out stuff about everyone you know and then go on to their relatives and neighbors. It's doesn't cost you any more so why not.
You should at least try out a membership site. Most sites will give you a short trial for a very small fee and it's enough to do background checks on almost everyone you know. If you do that I think that you will see that it's a valuable resource that you will want to have available to you whenever you meet someone new.