criminal

Scrutinize bills and account statements for unautho- rized transactions. Request information about security procedures at doc- tors’ offices, businesses, educational institutions, and workplaces, such as who has access to databases, whether records are kept in a safe location, and how old files are disposed of. Don’t carry a Social Security card in a wallet or […]

VICTIM PRECIPITATION AND PROVOCATION Victim facilitation is a possibility in burglaries, motor vehicle thefts, and identity thefts. Charges of precipitation and provocation are hurled at vic- tims of murder, robbery, assault, and rape (see Chapter 10 for an extensive analysis). A husband-and-wife team, each with a history of robbery arrests and drug abuse, embark on

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, FRAUD DIVISION, 2008 Furthermore, many people would consider abiding by the long lists of dos and don’ts recom- mended in Box 5.4 to be unreasonable (such as workers grilling their employers about how well their personnel files are safeguarded); impractical (customers refusing to provide Social Security num- bers to creditors); burdensome

FBI AGENT JEFF LANZA, 2006 (FBI, 2008) The first line of defense against identity theft often is an aware and motivated consumer who takes rea- sonable precautions to protect his information. Every day unwitting consumers create risks to the security of their personal information. From failing to install firewall protection on a computer hard drive

How Many Identity Thefts Were Victim-Facilitated? Protect your Social Security number and other per- sonal information. Don’t let identity thieves rob you of your educational future! B O X 5.4 Advice to Motorists About Vehicle Theft What the Insurance Industry Recommends in Order to Safeguard the Vehicle: The insurance industry advises it customers to take

FRANK SCAFIDI, NATIONAL INSURANCE CRIME BUREAU (2014a) Who or what is to blame for the theft and attempted theft of roughly 556,000 cars in 2013 (according to the NCVS [BJS, Truman and Langton, 2014]) or the approximately 700,000 vehicles reported as stolen that year (according to the UCR [FBI, 2014])? As the statements above demonstrate,

How Many Vehicle Thefts Were Victim-Facilitated? No intelligent person would put from $1,000 to $5,000 in good money in the street and expect to find it there an hour later, yet that is exactly what a large number of people do when they leave an auto- mobile in the street without locking it. Even more,

How Many Burglaries Were Victim-Facilitated? Elderly folks often talk fondly about the “good old days” when they left their doors unlocked. That practice wouldn’t be prudent these days. A residential burglary can be considered to be facilitated if the offender did not need to break into the premises because a homeowner or apart- ment dweller

MISTAKES INDIVIDUALS MAKE: FACILITATION Arguments stressing personal accountability focus on the notions of victim facilitation, precipitation, and provocation. All three of these blameworthy behaviors are derived from the broader theme of shared responsibility. Each concept describes the specific, identifiable, and undesirable actions taken by certain individuals immediately before they were harmed. Provocation is the most

What Is System Blaming? The second tendency is to link victim defending with system blaming, wherein neither the offender nor the victim is the real culprit. If the lawbreaker is viewed as largely a product of his or her environment, B O X 5.2 Early Criticisms of the Notion of Shared Responsibility The concept of