The role of victim services for individuals who have experienced serious identity-based crime

Although much has been written about identity-based crimes, much less is known about victim services for identity-based crimes. This paper uses in-depth interview data collected from individuals who have both experienced a serious identity-based crime in the past 2 years and used services from the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center, an organization focused on helping victims deal with identity-based victimizations. In so doing, the study adds to the literature in several ways. First, the study echoes the existing knowledge about victim experiences, in that there are financial, emotional, physical, and psychological impacts for victims of serious identity-based crime that mirror the experiences of victims of other types of serious crimes. Second, it adds new knowledge and understanding about the actions taken by victims of different types of identity-based crime, including how they initially seek out services, are influenced by organizations and agencies other than law enforcement, and obtain knowledge about their perpetrators. Finally, the study includes recommendations made by interviewees about how identity-based crime victim services could be enhanced to better serve victims of serious identity-based crime.