14 States Don't Identify ID Theft Victims as Victims Under the Victim Rights Statutes
by: Ryan • June 27, 2011 • no comments
Or so says the National Crime Victim Law Institute, according to a story on the msnbc.msn.com website. It's a story that is intended to foster outrage but does little to educate its readers on the competing dynamics between making a law as broad as possible - to permit as many felony prosecutions as you can - and targeting a specific harm. I suspect that if you looked at the law in those 14 states, you'd find that the identity that was stolen could - as in Oregon - have been the identity of dead or imaginary people, not just real people. Like Oregon, those states may not require actual fraud, or even the intent to defraud, but merely an intent to deceive. Both of those aspects of the Oregon law make ID Theft very easy to prosecute, but they have an inevitable impact on who can claim victim status.
In the law, there are always trade-offs. I believe - The Class of Victims for ID Theft and here and here - that the trade-off in making ID Theft so easy to prosecute are various complications that compel the conclusion that the person or business who might be defrauded is the victim, not the person (real, imaginary or dead) whose identity was taken. This issue is currently under advisement with the Oregon Court of Appeals, and a decision could occur anytime in the next six months.
The quote from msnbc.msn.com is as follows:
That agency's research, released Tuesday, shows that in 14 states, ID theft victims aren't recognized as "victims" under the state's victim rights statute - including Nebraska. In many states, victim status grants a clear legal path for a civil action designed to recover money damages.
