Wild, Wild Theft: Identity Crimes in the Digital Frontier

• Author: Stephen V. Gies,Amanda Bobnis,Nicole Leeper Piquero,Alex R. Piquero,Brandn Green
• Date: 01 July 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403420949650
• Published date: 01 July 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403420949650

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2021, Vol. 32(6) 592 –617

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0887403420949650

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Article

Wild, Wild Theft:

Identity Crimes in the

Digital Frontier

Stephen V. Gies1, Nicole Leeper Piquero2,

Alex R. Piquero2,3 , Brandn Green1,

and Amanda Bobnis1

Abstract

Identity theft is a pervasive and expensive problem. Not only does the crime incur

a significant financial and mental cost on the victim, but also exhibits a financial

toll on the organizations that are swept up in the crime. Yet, while there is some

research on the offender part of the identity theft problem, much less research

has been devoted to identity theft victims and almost no research has examined

victim attempts at remediation. This article examines how the use of a nonprofit

victim service organization, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), affects the

experiences of identity crime victims with respect to a variety of problems. Findings

reveal that victims incur many problems related to identity theft, that many problems

linger over time, and that some services are useful in helping them manage the crime’s

after-effects.

Keywords

identity theft, victim assistance, financial crime

Introduction

The digital age has given rise to a contemporary type of crime problem in which mod-

ern criminals take advantage of unsuspecting victims not through violence or the steal-

ing of valuable property but rather by thieving personally identifiable information

1Development Services Group, Inc., Bethesda, MD, USA

2University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

3Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Corresponding Author:

Alex R. Piquero, Department of Sociology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA.

Email: axp1954@miami.edu

949650CJPXXX10.1177/0887403420949650Criminal Justice Policy ReviewGies et al.

research-article2020

Gies et al. 593

(PII),1 commonly referred to as identity theft. Believed to have been first coined in the

1960s for scams in which a perpetrator would fraudulently obtain the PII of a victim

via the telephone (W. R. Miller, 2012), identity theft is not exactly a new problem, but

one that has evolved with technology. Identity theft victimization is one of the most

feared and fastest growing crime problems, in part because of the freedoms provided

to and demanded by consumers in the digital world (Piquero et al., 2011). Furthermore,

an increase in globalization and a lack of borders provide an environment ripe for

criminals to engage in these crimes with a sense of impunity, and thus create unprec-

edented challenges for law enforcement to both identify and apprehend those engaging

in these crimes (Finklea, 2014).

In contrast to the expanding opportunities for offenders, the increasing population

of victims of identity crimes is being left with little recourse to redress the wrongs

committed against them. This article first defines two similar yet distinct identity-

based crimes and reviews their prevalence in the United States, then investigates the

consequences of identity-based crimes on individuals, what is currently being done to

remedy these harms, and what needs to change to better help victims. In this regard,

our work is among the few in this area of research that focuses on victim’s conse-

quences of identity theft and more importantly the types of victim services (and expe-

riences) provided to identity theft victims (Green et al., 2020).

Understanding Identity-Based Crime

Understanding Victimization in Identity-Based Crimes

Identity-based crimes generally fall into one of two categories: identity theft or

identity fraud. Although these two terms have been conceptualized in several dif-

ferent ways and are often used interchangeably (Golladay & Holtfreter, 2017),

they bear specific differences. Identity theft involves the “unlawful taking” of

another person’s PII (Golladay & Holtfreter, 2017; Pascual et al., 2018). Identity

fraud, by contrast, is the unauthorized use of another person’s PII (Golladay &

Holtfreter, 2017; Pascual et al., 2018). As such, while the two crimes are related,

they are independent of each other, where the thieving of PII is an antecedent to

the crime of fraud. In other words, identity theft is a facilitating crime that can

stimulate other crimes, such as financial, criminal, medical, and government

fraud,2 with financial fraud being the most common type (Identity Theft Resource

Center [ITRC], 2017).

Prevalence of Identity-Based Crimes

The digital age allows more freedom for consumers to do almost everything on their

own terms—to open new financial accounts, to hail a car through ride-share services,

to share vacation photos instantly on social media sites, and to send highly confidential

information by email. The dark side of these conveniences is that as people become

increasingly connected across networks, they exponentially expand the footprints of