Well, since these are essentially financial crimes, economic factors are certainly at play. The criminals need money, but this can’t be the only reason. If this were the case, every person who is experiencing financial difficulties would just starting raiding other people’s bank accounts — as if it were second nature. So, why do people do bad things like commit crimes?

According to this eHow article, people commit crimes for several reasons, but the most common are love, jealousy and money. Okay. We know that money is a factor, but does this really address the reason? Not in our opinion. We need to go deeper.

According to Robert Merton’s famous Anomie Theory, people commit crimes because there is a situation in which there is an apparent lack of fit between the culture’s norms about what constitutes success in life (goals) and the culture’s norms about the appropriate ways to achieve those goals (means). Did you get that? So, basically, it is the norms of society (success = making money) and when people can’t meet these goals, they resort to financial crimes.

So, we have come full circle: it’s all about the money. What do you all think about this? Is the answer that simple? And, since our society keeps getting more and more money driven, does this mean that identity fraud crimes will continue to increase? We welcome all thoughts and ideas!