Sociological Perspectives On Identity Theft

Figuring out if an identity is stolen is not easy only because it can be unknown until damage is dealt. This is why identity theft isn’t easy to stop. When most people report a crime, police arrive on the scene before serious damage is dealt, but when a thief steals a person’s identity, the victim can be unaware for quite some time before they realize the amount of money they lost. According to Tracey Whittaker and Anne Dilascio, in 2003, the average money lost from identity theft per person was $4,789, but in 2006 the average was less than $2000. The average out-of-pocket cost of identity theft victims in 2005 was

1. Case Study:  “Don’t Let Crooks Steal Your Identity: How to Protect Yourself-and Your Credit Rating” (p. 225)

The well-to-do generally come from upper-class families - meaning that they face none of the disadvantages of an absent-parent upbringing - and have no need to rob convenience stores to feed their children, so they bypass petty crime and move on to what is known as white-collar crime; financially motivated nonviolent crime committed by business and government professionals. “The temptation to commit white collar crimes is far greater for the wealthy” says Sal Bommarito of the Mic Network. Petty crime offers no worthwhile reward to the 1%, as the money earned from a late-night robbery would likely end up being spent on their breakfast the next morning, but the hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be made from corporate embezzlement could be the down payment on the new Ferrari they’d been eyeing. The lack of street crime but over-saturation of white-collar crime committed by the upper-class is ultimately just as, if not more, harmful on a global scale. Canada alone lost $74,387,465.23 in 2014 due to mass marketing fraud, a crime generally committed by white-collar criminals. In contrast, there were 14, 258 reported thefts of $5000 or more perpetrated in Canada in the same year, resulting in an approximate loss of $71, 290,000, undercutting mass marketing fraud by $3,097,465.23. The difference lays in the types of crimes being committed; the poor are more likely to commit street crime whilst the rich are ultimately more likely to commit fraudulent corporate

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation” (Oscar Wilde). This quote illustrates how in our world, a person’s identity can be easily changed. Many Americans are effected by this problem today. Citizens, criminals, and the government all play a role in this process. However, many disagree as to whether identity theft should be allowed in our country. Based on the history of identity theft and relationships between American citizens, the government, and this issue, identity theft should be abolished in America.

This theory proposes that crime occurs when people’s daily behavior allows for opportunities for crime by bringing inadequately protected targets into the presence of motivated offenders. The theory relies on a motivated offender, a suitable target, and an absence of guardianship (Conklin, 2013, p. 209). Possible motivations could be law neutralization such as denial of the victim, status from peers, lack of money for the property, and the rewards outweigh the risks (Conklin, 2013, p. 209). Thieves consider suitable targets based upon the form and value of the property to be stolen, the vulnerability of the target, and the likelihood of victim resistance (Conklin, 2013, p. 213). Guardianship is measured by how well people protect themselves and their property from

As we have already learned, it is an important aspect that we understand the robber’s mind when they committed their crimes, chose their targets, and what had resulted afterward. The typical offender cannot arise without a motive, a prime target, or a physical confrontation with their victim. After one study was conducted by Wright and Decker, they found that 100% of the offenders felt it was worth taking the risk of robbing someone which ultimately led to them being caught. When most robberies occur, the offenders prefer to carry a weapon of some sort. One researcher found that an offender mentioned during an interview that he only used a knife during his robbery spree because nobody would let him use their gun. Wright and Decker

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Shoplifting affects the rich and the poor. Shoplifting has also been found to be an offense that is primarily committed by men over women, but our text shares that, “females represent the majority of offenders in some shoplifting data sources, but this has been challenged by research since the 1970’s” (Schmalleger, p. 201). Our text also shares that younger adolescents are overrepresented as shoplifters, but the most serious cases are found of those amongst the economically

In today’s society, unfortunately, the fraudulent based crime of identity theft has gained dominance as one of the most common crimes in the country. In response to the ever-growing trend of identity theft, all states have passed some form of law in an attempt to address the problem. Take, for instance, the state of North Carolina, to establish the necessary statute to combat the problem they first had to identify what constituted identity theft. What the North Carolina legislature developed for the purpose of establishing an identity theft crime is anyone who intentionally sets out to commit the fraudulent use of another person’s identity for the purpose of gaining any credit, money, or other types of reward, whether monetary or otherwise

Age also has an impact on crime. Certain age groups are more likely to commit specific crimes; a prime example is teenage years. Teen are affected by peer pressure that can influence them to do things out of the ordinary. As many teenagers do not have a regular source of income, they can be tempted to shoplift to acquire clothes, cds, or other objects to fit in. Studies have found that this declines after high school when individuals must get a job to support themselves. Age can also be an indicator of what ages are most likely to be the victims of specific crimes. A 2008 study by the Department of Justice found that most victims of violent crimes were between the ages of sixteen to nineteen and declined slowly after that. From this the Department of Justice was able to conclude that violent crimes are less likely to happen to individuals sixty-five and older.

People live their lives each day with the same routines and do not realize that some of the things they do could make them vulnerable to criminal activity. I even put myself at a high risk of being victimized without even knowing it. Depending on hotspots and a person’s lifestyle it could heighten the chances of being a victim of a crime. In order to gain a better understanding of being victimized, a person must accept that crime is random and can happen to anyone regardless of the actions taken to prevent being

Shoplifting is criminal issue that is frequent, nonviolent, public and observable that serves as a serious concern for the criminal justice system (Weaver and Carroll 1985: 350). Shoplifting is the criminal action of stealing goods from a shop, while pretending to be a customer (Oxford 2016). In sociological research today, shoplifting is vaguely defined behaviour that differs in detection and has various degrees of punishment (Newberg 1968:132). Shoplifting is a crime committed by offenders varying in gender, age, race, and class which gives it a vague reputation in sociological research and leaves scholars uncertain of who the primary offenders are. A study done by Dabney, Hollinger, and Dugan (2004) aims to identify who the primary offenders

According to the Lifestyle exposure theory, lifestyle is attributed to different levels of exposure to risk for different people such that some persons are exposed to higher risks than others. For instance, an individual who is constantly going to bars and drinking alcohol is exposed to a higher life peril than another person who opts to stay indoors. As such, identity theft involves the illegal gain of access to such personal details (demographic information) on the internet as names, birthdays, Email address, telephone number, physical address, alongside others and executes a criminal act on behalf of the victim (Archer, 2012). The availability of personal information, both demographic and lifestyle may be exploited by criminals to inflict

One limitation the research possessed is that it relieved heavily on interviews from federally convicted thieves, as they excluded local ones due to local authorities inability to often convict offenders as a result of their lack of resources. Another limitation which should be noted, is that according to Copes and Vieraitis, “Any sample based on convicted offenders may actually tell us more about enforcement patterns and priorities than about the actual distribution of crime…It is possible that those convicted at the federal level are not representative of identity thieves in general” (2012, p.

Identity theft affects millions of Americans every day. Scam artists and hackers lay in wait for an unsuspecting person to get caught up their scheme through ignorance or naivety so they can take full advantage of their personal information to do as they desire with it. Problem is, it infiltrates and depreciates the integral infrastructure of our society which creates a cultural lapse through the declination of economic and cultural growth and double jeopardizes an already unstable system to the brink of its destruction. To understand how