The authors comment that
For academics, philosophizing about the ideal policy is often a particularly nice and intellectually challenging exercise. Eventually, however, reality rears its head and even academics have to recognize the utopian nature of their action plan. Being realistic usually implies accepting sub-optimal or even mediocre solutions. We appreciate that devising sound policies takes considerable time. Moreover, we are acutely aware that the problem society faces is extremely difficult to address effectively. Internet-facilitated identity theft is a new means to commit a very profitable crime with low risk of being detected. It has been snatched up by professional and organized criminals, who have the entire world as their field of operation to look for the weakest links in financial services. As a result, the principle question that traditionally comes up with new crimes - 'how to catch a thief' - is perhaps the wrong question to ask in the Internet era. This observation logically raises the issue what question should then be asked. In light of the particular character of identity theft, we think this should be: 'how can we most effectively protect individuals from falling victim to identity theft, and how can we help those who have been victimized to recover their identity and their normal life?'It is a nice example of experts validating their existence and - and promoting their expertise - by asserting that they, unlike their peers, are realists rather than utopians, people who are equipped to make hard decisions about sub-optimal outcomes and who can be trusted to ask the right questions.
It is also a nice example of the 'global organised crime in the age of the internet' meme, despite uncertainties about whether most 'identity theft' - in terms of incidence and dollar value - involves professional criminals, particularly professional criminals operating across borders. That characterisation of diverse offences affecting a range of individuals and institutions gets official attention and space in books or journals but militates against effective responses to many of the identity abuses affecting people in Europe, North America and Australia.
