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Ebook Identity Theft Literature Review

Submitted by wulan on Sat, 11/14/2009 - 01:39

This paper departs from the usual format of a literature review because there is very little formal research on identity theft per se. Thus we have reached out to other fields to import into this review research and other studies that seem immediately relevant to our topic. Identity theft is a product of the new age of information technology and as such fits nicely into the literature of opportunity theory in criminology which examines how offenders take advantage of new (and old) ways of doing business and conducting the affairs of everyday life (Felson 1998; Felson and Clarke 1998). We have therefore drawn heavily on that approach and used it as an organizing principle for the paper.

The paper also differs from a typical literature review because it is in some places prescriptive, sometimes without adequate formal research to support such prescriptions. This applies particularly in regard to local police response. Much of the evidence in such matters lies in prescriptions and sometimes exhortations delivered by various associations and interest groups, sometimes emerging from various congressional hearings and on occasion emerging from federal or state legislation.

The sources of information are also rather wide-ranging and vary in type and quality, as we note below. We have made considerable use of the Internet, but are cognizant of the dangers of treating some of that information as “factual.” Identity theft as a topic has a major presence on the Internet (see Appendix 5) which is perhaps an indicator of public interest, concern and entrepreneurial spirit. The better of these sources are described in Appendix 1.

CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. INTRODUCTION
2. DEFINITION OF IDENTITY THEFT
3. TYPES OF IDENTITY THEFT

    Exploiting Weakness in Specific Technologies and Information Systems
    Financial Scams
    As a motive for other crimes
    Facilitating Other Crimes
    Avoiding Arrest
    Repeat Victimization: “Classic” Identity Theft
    Organized Identity Theft

4. EXTENT AND PATTERNING OF IDENTITY THEFT

    Sources of Data and Measurement Issues
      Agency Data
      Research Studies
      Anecdotes

    The Extent of Identity Theft
    Distribution in the U.S.

      Geographic patterns
      Offense-specific patterns

    Victims

      Victim demographics
      Children as victims
      Deceased as victims
      Institutional victims
      The elderly as victims
      Repeat victimization

    Offenders

      Offender typology
      Organizations as offenders

    Relationship between victims and offenders

5. THE COST OF IDENTITY THEFT

    Financial costs: Businesses
    Financial costs: The criminal justice system
    Financial costs: Individuals
    Personal costs (non-financial)
    Societal costs

6. EXPLAINING IDENTITY THEFT: THE ROLE OF OPPORTUNTIY

    Identity and its Authentication as the Targets of Theft
    Identity as a “Hot Product”
    Exploiting Opportunities: Techniques of Identity Theft
      How offenders steal identities
      How offenders use stolen identities

    Why Do They Do It?

      Concealment
      Anticipated rewards
      A note on motivation

7. THE LAW ENFORCEMENT RESPONSE TO IDENTITY THEFT

    Reporting and Recording of Identity Theft
    Harm Reduction
    Effective police response
    Task Forces and Cross Jurisdictional Issues
      State efforts to address the cross-jurisdictional issues
      Federal efforts to address the cross-jurisdictional issues
      Attorney General’s Council on White Collar Crime
      Subcommittee on Identity Theft

    The Know Fraud initiative
    The FTC’s Efforts
    Investigation and Prosecution

      State investigation and prosecution

    Federal investigation and prosecution
    Sentencing and Corrections

8. LEGISLATION

    State legislation
    Federal legislation

9. PREVENTION

    Reducing Opportunity
    Techniques to reduce identity theft
    The Role of Technology and the “Arms Race”

10. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
REFERENCES…..

    APPENDIX 1: Descriptions of Identity Theft Data Sources
    APPENDIX 2: Summary of FTC Consumer Sentinel/Identity Theft Clearinghouse Data
    APPENDIX 3: Summary of Federal Identity Theft-Related Statutes and State Identity Theft Laws
    APPENDIX 4: Cases of Identity Theft
    APPENDIX 5: Web pages returned by Google Search on 10/8/04

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