Identity Thieves: Motives and Methods

5 | Theoretical and Policy Implications

121||||||||| 5 ||||||||| theoretICaL and poLICy IMpLICatIons The past few decades have witnessed a dramatic decrease in crime rates throughout the United states. scholars have offered numerous explanations for the drop in crime, including the stabilization of drug markets, increased incarceration rates, an aging population , and innovative strategies implemented by police.1 More recently , some have suggested that a decline in the use of cash may be partly responsible for the decrease in property crimes.2 With fewer people carrying cash, and stricter limits on the amounts of cash that stores keep on premises, there are simply fewer opportunities for would-be robbers and burglars to find scores worth their time. Interestingly, this nationwide drop in property crimes corresponded with an increase in white-collar crimes, such as fraud and identity theft.3 It is estimated that more than 11 million adult consumers were victims of identity theft in 2009, an increase from nearly 10 million in 2008.4 Moreover, data from the 2009 Consumer sentinel network report indicate that identity theft was the top complaint category for the 2008 calendar year—comprising 26 percent of complaints overall—and it has been ranked number one for several previous years.5 such high rates of victimization likely have contributed to the public’s concern for the security and privacy of their personal information . The findings from a survey of U.s. residents suggests that nearly two-thirds of respondents reported that they are either “extremely” or “very” concerned about identity theft and credit and debit card fraud.6 additionally, survey research indicates that from 40 to 66 percent of citizens would be willing to pay extra taxes (about eighty-seven dollars annually) if the money were used to help guard against identity theft.7 122 identity thieves as a result of these concerns, citizens have changed the way they manage financial accounts and protect their personal information .8 Many have begun purchasing—for sizable fees—various products and programs designed to protect them from victimization , including credit monitoring, fraud alerts, and information monitoring. Industry reports have shown that more consumers use credit monitoring services than any other identity theft protection product, with three out of ten consumers enrolled as of year-end 2008.9 In fact, credit monitoring services alone are approaching $1 billion in sales each year, as millions of people have signed up.10 another indication of consumers’ fear of identity theft—and their increasing vigilance in protecting their information—is the sudden popularity of paper shredders. sales of personal shredders have shown double-digit percentage increases over the past few years, and shredders are the fastest-growing segment of the total office products market.11 although reports from public and private agencies that collect data on identity theft indicate that it is growing both more common and more costly, researchers have devoted little attention to studying those who engage in this crime. Much has been written on victim characteristics, prevention techniques, and emerging legislation. Until now, however, there has not been a systematic examination of offenders. This book’s goal was to begin filling this gap in our knowledge. By assessing the perspectives of offenders, we hoped to produce a more comprehensive picture of identity theft; a picture that would offer suggestions for how this crime might be better controlled. our interpretation of the accounts provided by identity thieves was guided by contemporary rational choice theory. although our aim was not to test the predictive ability or explanatory power of rational choice theory, we drew upon insights from this theory to shape the structure of our interviews, make sense of what the offenders said, and organize our findings. as a result, we imply in much of our writing that identity thieves were rational, at least to some degree, in their decisions to become involved in identity theft, in their assessments of risk and their attempts to manage theoretical and policy implications 123 that risk, and in how they chose to enact their crimes. other theories could have been used to guide the interpretation of these same interviews. In fact, we borrowed from a variety of other theories to supplement our analysis, including differential association and the sociology of accounts. nevertheless, after thinking about the interviews throughout the research process, we concluded that applying the elements of rational choice theory was the most effective approach for making sense of the data. Before discussing the theoretical relevance of our...