Identity theft

Newton, Judy 2013. Identity theft. MPhil Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Recognized as one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States, identify theft has eluded customary, reactive systems of containment, due to its rapidly changing nature, the dependency upon legislative and corporate efforts and the perceptions of the law enforcement and the business industry, which minimizes its impact. The prevention strategies have been ill matched to the nature of the crimes or interceded after the crimes have been committed. In order to institute comprehensive identity theft protection, including the conviction of the criminals, a system sensitive to the changing nature of the crimes, the access a criminal has to personal identifying data and one which is proactive in nature is needed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the usefulness of the routine activity theory (RAT) in the understanding of identity theft. The interview data were analyzed to explore the perceptions of the stakeholders, their evaluation of the usefulness of the application of this theory, and to determine more effective identify theft protection. Using an ethnographic paradigm, a cross sectional representation of the stakeholders, twenty five law enforcement professionals, offenders and victims were provided with five general and five specific to each group of stakeholders (interviews) and probing (conversations) inquires to determine the current state of practice and whether their responses supported that RAT would be advantageous in the containment of this crime. The analyses of the data revealed that RAT would be useful in the understanding of identity theft, provide a framework to modify the state of practice from a retrospective analyses after a theft was committed, to preventive measures, and that no ample framework was present. Implementing RAT as a theoretical model would be more pragmatic and incorporate a more global approach to the standard of practice. The confounding conditions, such as the guardedness of the disclosed information, the limited access to archival records, the offenders available for the study, and the lack of formative studies to systematize the data indicated that additional research is needed. These include: (1) categorization of the interview data into propositions, and (2) the benefits of educational programs for governmental and law enforcement officers using RAT as proactive system in the reduction of these crimes.

Item Type:	Thesis (MPhil)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2016 23:22
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/49121

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