Online Criminal Drug Networks

Ohio State University, The, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

The aim of this study is to collect network data from an online drug market to examine its structure and the processes through which it forms. The focus is to evaluate 1) how the market grows, behaves, and changes over time and 2) how the market reacts to law enforcement efforts. The project aims to shed new light on criminals' use of technology and to track changes in drug dealers' distribution tactics, drawing from network theories and theories of criminal coordination. Drug procurement through online drug markets and encrypted Internet services is increasing. Scholars and policy makers are calling for more research on drug access via the Internet through encrypted online drug marketplaces. Encrypted virtual criminal networks are an ideal case to study the impact of emergent technologies on the organization of real world crime. By limiting the risk of detection, anonymizing technologies provide a unique medium for criminal groups to coordinate offending. Deterrence strategies assume that most crime is committed by a few key actors, who sometimes recruit others to participate. Crucial to this understanding is that crime is a group-level phenomenon, where 1) crime groups are fluid, and can be better understood as a network of criminal affiliations, and 2) only a few offenders direct network activities and are responsible for most offending. In this regard, criminal coordination refers to recruitment and participation in a network of criminal affiliations, even when participants may not consider themselves to be members of a crime group. This makes network analysis ideal to understand how disruption efforts affect crime groups' behavior and coordination, especially when the network takes the shape of a market, because it treats crime groups as a series of affiliations, rather than as a stable entity. The study will employ network methodologies to answer two broad research questions: (1) How do online criminal networks organize and what actor characteristics drive transactional ties? (2) How do online criminal networks behave over time and react to potential deterrence strategies? Findings will generate knowledge about new forms of criminal organization, as well as drug enforcement and prevention agencies, and will shed light on the relational dynamics that sustain and facilitate the growth of online crime networks.