Capable Guardianship and CRISIS of Identity Theft in the United States

Identity theft victimization is a pervasive issue that affected 17.6 million people in the United States in 2014. In recent years, criminals have leveraged an expanding field of technologies, tactics, and various systems to commit identity theft. According to the Department of Justice, 7% of all Americans ages 16 and older were vic-timized. This 7% accounted for an estimated $50 billion in losses in 2016. Routine activities theory is often used as a theoretical lens and is frequently considered in conjunction with victim’s online profiles and routine activities. Routine activities theory states that crime is more likely to occur when these three elements are present: a motivated offender, suitable targets, and lack of available guardian-ship. Various studies have focused on the measurements of victim’s online exposure to motivated offenders, online proximity to motivated offenders, online target suitability, online self-guardianship (target hardening), and demographic characteristics. The purpose of this study was to empirically examine identity theft victimization in the United States through the lens of cyber-routine activities theory. A subsample of 84,823 respondents from a 2014 National Crime Victimization Survey was analyzed. The current study provided a more concise measurement on capable self-guardianship. Specifically, the researchers looked at two types of self-guardianship, online and offline self-guardianship. Online self-guardianship was defined as a protective behavior or online tool that could help po-tential victims secure themselves from perpetrators. These include but are not limited to changing passwords, firewalls, and antivirus programs. In accordance with routine activity theory, offline self-guardianship was de-fined as protective behavior or target hardening in the physical world. These protective measures served to prevent conventional types of crimes in both the physical world and cyberspace. In an attempt to address the gaps in the literature regarding a concise measurement of self-guardianship, the following hypotheses were evaluated in the present study: 1) individuals who have a higher level of online self-guardianships (e.g. changing passwords or using security software) are less likely to be victimized by identi-ty theft; 2) individuals who have a higher level of offline self-guardianships (e.g. checking credit report or statement) are less likely to be victimized by identity theft. The findings indicated that online and offline self-guardianship was statistically significant effect on the reduction of identity theft victimization. Lastly, the study concluded with a discussion of the policy implications and a discussion of limitations of the current research.