> There was no way to hold them [the copier of his ID card] responsible
With the term "identity theft", one concludes that his damages come from being the victim of the copier, and that this crime was never solved. However, every harm that befell him was actually due to other parties that operate completely out in the open, but they manage to escape your blame!
> prosecuted for or imprisoned for crimes they had nothing to do with
The real crimes are the utter incompetence of the prosecutor and the extrajudicial punishment from merely being targeted by that system.
> people to be chased by collection agencies
The collection agencies are committing harassment and extortion, rooted in negligence.
> credit ratings ruined
Libel and tortious interference by the credit bureaus.
In all of these cases, the term "identity theft" primarily serves to obscure the root of the problem, which is the utter lack of diligence by creditors and the unearned importance given to the results of their sloppy process. The parties responsible for the above transgressions seek to pass the buck by glossing over their glaringly simplistic assumptions, because any actual fix would make their job much harder.