criminology unit 4
3. What is identity theft? How can identities be stolen? What can be done to reduce the impact of identity theft on victims? Identity theft occurs when a victim’s name, address, and other personal details are given to law enforcement officials during the commission of a crime. The victim is then mistakenly arrested. Often times, the imposter has obtained some sort of tangible, personal information from the victim, usually a driver’s license. Once the name of an innocent identity theft victim is assigned to the criminal act of the true perpetrator, it can be very difficult for the identity theft victim to convince law enforcement authorities that they are not the individual who committed the crime.
An additional form of identity theft occurs when someone uses a person’s name for the benefit of medical services. Medical identity theft can be life threatening, since decisions by medical doctors and staff is made based on the existing conditions of the victim. A certain specific form of medical identity theft is physician identity theft. Physician identity theft occurs when a person illegally uses a physician’s name and physician identification number for prescribing unnecessary prescriptions.
Another form of identity theft is child identity theft. Child identity theft is very similar to criminal identity theft; however, the major difference is that a child’s identity is stolen, usually from a close friend or family member. Child identity theft is popular amongst criminals because of the amount of time that it takes to identify the crime. Since children are normally not subject to identity theft because of their lack of a financial status, most parents do not examine their child’s financial standing. In many child identity thefts, it is often the parents who steal the identity of their children for their own personal gain.
Because children are too young to do anything about the crime, or even realize it has happened to them, the crime can go
An additional form of identity theft occurs when someone uses a person’s name for the benefit of medical services. Medical identity theft can be life threatening, since decisions by medical doctors and staff is made based on the existing conditions of the victim. A certain specific form of medical identity theft is physician identity theft. Physician identity theft occurs when a person illegally uses a physician’s name and physician identification number for prescribing unnecessary prescriptions.
Another form of identity theft is child identity theft. Child identity theft is very similar to criminal identity theft; however, the major difference is that a child’s identity is stolen, usually from a close friend or family member. Child identity theft is popular amongst criminals because of the amount of time that it takes to identify the crime. Since children are normally not subject to identity theft because of their lack of a financial status, most parents do not examine their child’s financial standing. In many child identity thefts, it is often the parents who steal the identity of their children for their own personal gain.
Because children are too young to do anything about the crime, or even realize it has happened to them, the crime can go
Cited: Mercuri, R. T. (2006). Scoping identity theft. Communications of the ACM, 49(5), 17-21. Ramaswamy, V. M. (2006). Identity-theft toolkit. CPA Journal, 76(10), 66-70. Solow, B. (2010). Your good name: protecting yourself from physician identity theft. Physician Executive, 36(3), 30-33. Swanson, C. R., Chamelin, N. C., Territo, L., & Taylor, R. W. (2009). Schmalleger, Frank, Criminology Today: An Integrative Introduction (5th Edition) (Feb 4, 2008) Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/websites/idtheft.html