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yashwinacanter t1_izfp5e2 wrote

absolutely wild that the FBI doesn’t track what is obviously a major kind of crime - why doesn’t the federal govt seem to care, and what could be done to incentivize more support there?

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losangelestimes OP t1_izfv3py wrote

So, this story was about twice as long when I first filed it. For space reasons, and also to keep the narrative flowing, we had to cut a lot out.

I had originally written a lot more about my conversation with Shima Baughman, particularly her work on what she calls "the police myth": the belief that the law enforcement exists to control and solve crime. Statistically speaking, they do not. Certainly not for cyber crime, but also not really for traditional crime. Her work on clearance rates showed 97% of people who commit burglary are not held responsible for their crime by police.

I think identity theft and other cyber crimes are newer types of crime, and law enforcement - from the FBI down to local police - are more invested in violent and property crime. In my piece about potential solutions for identity theft, I wrote about how tracking cyber crime like those other types of crime would be a good start.

People need to make more noise about this. A lot of victims of identity theft and other cyber crimes - stalking and harassment, scams, revenge p*rn, etc - are ashamed. They blame themselves. Don't be. Reaching out to your representatives (over email, or even just tagging them on Twitter) and asking why the FBI doesn't track cyber crime is a good place to start.

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jovahkaveeta t1_izh23ef wrote

What do the cops do with all of our tax money?

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kingbane2 t1_izhwnhv wrote

protect property. but not poor people's property. they'll work on violent crimes too, but even then that sometimes depends.

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jovahkaveeta t1_izhxt42 wrote

Why don't we just go the way of private security detail and forgo the illusion that cops serve anyone else?

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kingbane2 t1_izi1oj2 wrote

you need the illusion that cops are there to help all of us, otherwise the masses might go anarchic, which isn't good for the rich.

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secoccular t1_izg5qxw wrote

The FTC does track the and FBI has access to these numbers, when people take the time to report it.

https://www.usa.gov/stop-scams-frauds

They are basically in information-gathering mode, and won't open investigations into individual cases unless they involve other crimes like money laundering.

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losangelestimes OP t1_izgavax wrote

Right, but that data doesn't go into NIBRS, which is what most police departments, institutions, and journalists refer to for crime reporting and demographics. You can look up violent and property crime rates through the FBI's crime data explorer, but you can't look up cyber crimes.

https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend

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secoccular t1_izgiaui wrote

Thanks. That's too bad the cyber crime numbers aren't made available yet.

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Aurvidlem t1_izgj9jf wrote

In these times, NIBRS seems to be a woefully unfortunate acronym.

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