A thief is a thief is a thief … and you can waste a lot of time trying to understand the thought processes that lead any given person to a life of stealing from others.
Nevertheless, a story in this morning’s New York Times paints a fascinating portrait of Shiva Brent Sharma, who had been arrested three times for computer-assisted identity theft by the time he turned 20 and is currently cooling his heels at the Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, N.Y.
The story spends more time chronicling the mechanics of how Sharma went about his thievery, but it also delves a bit into the background of what may have led him down that path. In those passages I found something particularly thought provoking.
I don’t know if the theory is still in vogue or not, but substance-abuse experts used to speak of “gateway drugs,” less dangerous fare such as alcohol and marijuana that supposedly would lead to harder varieties such crack and heroin. I could never decide whether the theory was too obvious — of course drug users start with the softer stuff first; they probably try Coca-Cola and coffee, too — or simply bogus, given the vast numbers of people who do their “gateway drugs” without walking through the gate.
But are there “gateway computer crimes”? The Times interview certainly raises that question, as Sharma recounts his early days of MP3 file “swapping,” followed by episodes of software piracy, and finally a foray into Web sites that offer all you need to know to launch a criminal career as an identity thief.
Now before any of you file sharers get all huffy, I’m not equating that practice with the crimes that landed Sharma in prison — although I have always considered the unauthorized use of intellectual property to be stealing. Nor am I suggesting that the typical adult would have any difficulty discerning the differences between grabbing songs for free and emptying some poor dupe’s bank account.
But what about the typical teenager? Or especially the atypical teenager, one with an underdeveloped sense of right and wrong? How big is the leap from stealing music and software to stealing credit cards for those kids?
Sharma has a parole hearing upcoming and tells the Times now that he always knew that what he was doing was wrong. But the gateway questions seem worth asking.
And by the way, Sharma’s identity-theft targets haven’t been his only victims.
“I hate computers,” says his wife, Damaris. “I think they’re the devil.”
She’s entitled to think that way as she raises the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, while her husband does his time and muses about the doubts he harbors regarding his ability to stay straight once released.
