Good point. I wanted to suggest that consent decrees that commercial organizations enter into with The FTC are public and can be a good source of information about the nature of the identity theft and the weaknesses in the organization’s privacy or security program which might have contributed to it. The FTC is using it’s very broad juristiction under the Fair Trade Act to enforce the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices provision.

Having tracked the issue of identity theft for more than a decade now, I am unaware of any one database that has an accurate compilation of identity theft cases. In fact, what we do know is that while identity theft continues to be one of the most prevalent crimes in America, it is also one of the most underreported crimes in America as well.
The FTC data of approximately 8 million victims per year – which are the numbers most often cited by the media – are voluntary and independent surveys show that only a fraction of identity theft victims report their cases to the FTC. So, we know that number is dramatically low.
There is a great need for better data collection at both the state and federal level. Hopefully, the day will come when that takes place.

I agree that there needs to be a uniform protocol for database management of all criminal prosecutions. When performing queries for pertinent background records the information on a single defendant is entered with many different spellings and variations that if it was not for time consuming review of data by human personnel, many prosecutions would fail. I’m sure that many slip through the cracks because of this reason. Each state has their main repository of records but no nationwide database for all records including those of lower degree level exists at this point.