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Recent Publications on Organized Crime: the year 2023

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In the late 2000s, after the implementation of European policies to prevent and criminalize irregular migration, a new form of human smuggling—ransom smuggling—appeared in North Africa. This article is an analysis of ransom smuggling of Somali migrants, based on anthropological fieldwork in Germany and Kenya. Ransom smuggling is dangerous and complex, involving both human smugglers and hostage takers, but I argue that Somali migrants—especially younger ones—make use of this form of smuggling despite its risks because it is cheaper and easier to organize than other options. I describe the major elements of Somali ransom smuggling, which involves transit through the Sahara and Libya. I focus on the various actors involved, and the responsibilities and burdens that accrue to the migrants who transit a system that accounts for their lives as commodities for trade.
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Organized crime both preys upon and caters to human need. It is corrosive and exploitative, but also empowering, and therefore pervasive. Indeed, though often out of sight, organized crime is everywhere: wherever governments draw the line, criminal actors find profitable ways of crossing it; wherever governments fail to deliver on human need, criminal actors capitalize on unmet desire or despair. For those excluded from the political economy, from patronage systems or elite bargains, organized crime can offer opportunity, possibly also protection.
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Literature has mainly focused on understanding whether organized crime impacts on economic growth, broadly intended. Yet, at the local level, little is known as to how crime may affect economic activities. Using a unique geo-localized dataset on Italian firms, we exploit the strengthening of policy enforcement against corruption to show that when municipalities where the city council is dissolved because of organized-crime infiltration, the construction sector suffers a 7% reduction in the value added of firms located in the same area where the council dissolution occurred. We also find that the effect is larger, the longer the commissioner is present in the municipal council. Taken together our findings suggest that the action of the commissioner depresses the economic activity in the construction sector of the area where the temporary-administered municipality is located, given that it blocks all those relationships with firms related with criminality. This calls for a contemporaneous intervention stimulating public procurements with 'good' firms. (JEL codes: K42, D73, R10 and H32)
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The aim of this paper is to further understanding on the ethical and conceptual challenges associated with researching human trafficking in Edo state, Nigeria. The contribution addresses perceptions of these phenomena among some local actors in the state. Based on five years’ research on human trafficking from Nigeria to Europe, this paper puts into perspective local perceptions, and some dynamics of data collection. Also considered here are ethical challenges bordering on trust and suspicion of the researcher’s intent, informed consent and suspicion of researcher’s motive especially those linked to funding. The paper concludes by recommending ways of navigating as well as overcoming the associated challenges in researching human trafficking in Edo state.
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In his landmark trilogy, The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, sociologist Manuel Castells argued that networks, information technology, and global economic flows were altering the nature of politics, power, and states. This article examines the network dynamics Castells wrote about in relation to transnational crime and illicit economic markets. The article further explores Castells’s influence on the study of transnational organized crime, illicit networks, and the global illicit economy.
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The article uses archival sources to critique the currently dominant etymological approach to the history of the word ’ndrangheta as used to refer to the Calabrian mafia. Scholars such as Paolo Martino and John Trumper have latched onto the word's ancient Greek origins to argue that the mafia organisation that we today call ’Ndrangheta has origins dating back many centuries. Moreover, according to Martino in particular, the flattering connotations of the word ’ndrangheta (courage, martial prowess, manliness) indicate that the ’Ndrangheta as a social phenomenon was rooted in the same positive values, and that it only later degenerated into criminality. This article proposes that the work of Martino and Trumper represents a largely evidence-free extension of etymology into the field of history. Analysing the latest archival evidence about the word from criminal trials conducted in the 1920s and early 1930s, and setting it in the context of current historiography and criminology on the ’Ndrangheta, the article argues that two conclusions about the history of the word are likely: that the use of ’ndrangheta as a name for the Calabrian mafia began at around the time it first appeared in the documentary sources; that the first to adopt it were mafiosi themselves.
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Mexican drug trafficking organizations have experienced rapid attrition resulting in a continual need for personnel since 2006. However, the process by which these criminal organizations absorb new members remains obscure. In this article, we report on the social context of recruitment and motivational pathways into Mexican drug trafficking organizations through in-depth interviews with current and former cartel members (N = 79). We find that recruits are motivated by aspirations of financial success and notions of masculinity, but also influenced by attachment to social groups and jointly shared experiences that we term a collective trajectory. We argue that individual decisions to join criminal organizations are viewed in collective terms, or being connected with members of their immediate social group. We conclude with the applications of challenges of collective trajectory for sociological criminology.
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This study examines strategic crackdown policies on organized crime between states or nations. In particular, we consider how organized crimes in different regions can affect optimal sanctions for local governments, which face the problem of coordination failure. We demonstrate how the strategic relation between organized crime groups (i.e., complementarity or substitution) affects the strategic relationship between local governments with respect to crackdowns on organized crime. We also demonstrate that if organized crime groups’ activities complement each other, the equilibrium sanction level without coordination is lower than the first-best sanction level with coordination and that if organized crime groups’ activities substitute each other, the equilibrium sanction level without coordination is higher than the first-best sanction level with coordination.
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Recent studies suggest that the pandemic has impacted criminal activities and organized crime groups. This article provides a qualitative review of changes in crime rates, patterns, and activities of organized crime groups (specifically, Triads) in Hong Kong. Three specific types of organized crimes with high Triad involvement were selected: serious violent crimes, serious drug-related crimes, and smuggling. After analyzing both official and non-official sources, the results showed that despite the government's stringent control measures that significantly suppressed socio-economic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the figures for these selected crimes rose tremendously. Triads' organized criminal activities became more frequent, dangerous, and aggressive, posing a severe threat to Hong Kong's law and order.
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Organized crime controls and exploits the communities where they operate by way of governance. Organized crime governance also manifests itself through master narratives, which are standard views of social reality. In response, people can express resistance through alternative narratives, which are counter-narratives that have the power to counter governance. This study is one of the first to analyze the counter-narratives used to counter governance by organized crime. Drawing on fifty semi-structured interviews of people who claimed to have had direct or indirect experiences with members of organized crime, it was possible to identify three types of counter-narratives – “Rejecting unethical entrepreneurship,” “Denying organized crime fascination” and “Making the pervasiveness of organized crime governance irrelevant “ – and to determine which of them has greater potency in countering the master narratives of organized crime governance.
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We study a model that establishes a novel theoretical rationale for the empirically well-documented relation between inequality and corruption. According to our model, inequality can nurture corruption by empowering organized crime because collusion between local police forces and criminal organizations is more likely in societies characterized by high inequality or weak security forces. Law enforcement and organized crime have a strong incentive to collude due to efficiency gains from specialization. However, their agreement breaks down when the mobsters can no longer credibly commit to joint rent maximization and thus start to compete with law enforcement for citizens’ wealth. The mobsters then non-violently monopolize the market for extortion by undercutting the police forces, similar to a strategy of predatory pricing. Criminal collusion is thus not very different from its corporate equivalent; hence, similar policy measures should be promising. In addition, our model also suggests that the criminal organization’s higher efficiency in extracting rents has a greater impact when the relative power between law enforcement and organized crime is rather balanced. Accordingly, when violent conflict becomes less predictable, non-violent elements of relative power become more relevant. Our model also allows for the interpretation that in the absence of strong social norms against corruption, organized crime is more difficult to challenge.
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The historical connection between Italian masonry and opaque interests of white-collar and institutional actors populates common representations of power in Italy. The P2 case contributed to shape an Italian collective representation of the role of the masonry as a locus where almost everything can be informally or illegally obtained by affiliates through the right connections, bribery, and blackmailing. Using a variety of resources, including case law, public inquiries, interviews, and media analysis, this paper will investigate the pathological dimension of potential interplays among deviant masons and political-institutional actors in a variety of cases from the P2 onwards. Marginally mafia organizations have also emerged in this interplay. We outline the actors, their resources, activities, and opportunities. We conclude by discussing how and why the willingness and the need of several powerful actors (including mafiosi) to find a “protected space” of extra-legal exchange, led them to create, seek, or enter masonic or para-masonic structures, able to provide governance of reciprocal needs and expectations.
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The paper analyses the relationship between the criminal treatment of “soft” drugs and the fight against organised crime related to drug trafficking, with regard to European law, international law and national criminal law of some EU countries (Spain, Portugal, Greece, Germany and Italy). Following an integrated approach, the essay analyzes the legislation in this matter, the phenomenology of trafficking and the initial effects that the anti-prohibitionist reforms of some North and South American jurisdictions have produced on the illicit market. The aim is to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the decriminalization models, taking into account not only their theoretical profiles but also possible outcome on the fight against organised crime.
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Starting point of the paper is the description of the phenomenon of labour exploitation, which is intertwined with the global process of liberalization of the global labour market. In this context, a protection of workers can be traced back to legal instruments in combating human trafficking where the victim is a vulnerable person. To this end, I argue that domestic and international rules against labour exploitation define a sort of minimum statute of the worker, the violation of which may result in criminal law protection that otherwise cannot be guaranteed by other measures of an extra-criminal nature. The Italian legal system punishes not only the employer who exploits workers but also the ‘caporale’ (or gangmaster) who recruits labour for the purpose of allocating them to work for third parties under exploitative conditions, taking advantage of the workers’ state of need. The paper then offers a comparative analysis with German criminal law, where unlawful intermediation of labour only plays a marginal role. Finally, I argue that the crime of labour exploitation intends to protect the entire labour market, defining the boundaries of the phenomenon within the so-called corporate crime. Evidence is, on the one hand, in Italy, the increasingly widespread application of the judicial administration and liability of entities under legislative decree 231/2001 and, on the other hand, in Germany, the tension towards labour market protection in the form of wage dumping.
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In its judgement No. 63/2022, the Italian constitutional court advances a reading of Art. 12 of Legislative decree No. 286/1998 (Tuimm) according to which a distinction should be made between mere facilitation, punished in par. 1 and seen as revolving around the “altruistic” conduct of an “individual” author, and smuggling of migrants, which the Court argues to be specifically criminalized instead in paragraphs 3, 3 bis and 3 ter, and to be evoking “scenarios of involvement of criminal organizations.” This paper raises some criticisms of this reading, showing how it, in addition to not being necessary for the Court’s purpose of showing the unconstitutionality of the two aggravating factors under censure (use of international transportation services and use of counterfeit documents), does not fit to explain the actual contents of Art. 12 Tuimm.
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In recent years the international community has shown interest in intervening to combat the flourishing illegal art market, so much so that it has acted several times with hard and soft law instruments, albeit with unsatisfactory results. This is also due to the fact that the fight against illegal trafficking has hitherto been considered as a sub-sector of the war on organised crime, taking the tools of intervention from this. An illegal trade, however, such as the trade in cultural goods, which has absolutely peculiar characteristics compared to other illicit markets, does not lend itself to such a crime-fighting technique, becoming useful ground to reflect upon for an autonomous rewriting of the discipline of combating illicit trafficking. Considering illegal markets not as battlegrounds for criminal associations, but as physiological centres of exchange driven by the logic of profit, can make it possible to outline holistic law enforcement regulations that are more effective and more respectful of individual rights.
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Trafficking in cultural property has long been considered mostly a social, economic and cultural problem, instead of a proper criminal one. Only at the turn of the century the focus really started shifting on the need for penal suppression. This chapter, after a brief analysis of the reasons behind this delay, including the ‘grey’ (not ‘black’) nature of the international market in artworks and antiquities, will focus on the most recent developments in international and EU law aimed at preventing and combating cultural property trafficking, as well as on the reasons that prompted this significant change in attitude by both national and international policymakers.
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The paper addresses the main issues arising from the basic distinction between coercive powers and adjudicative jurisdiction, concerning action against migrant smuggling in the High Seas. The paper focusses in particular on the controversial praxis in the fight against the crime of aiding and abetting irregular immigration as provided for by the Italian law.
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The long history of the Mediterranean characterizes it as a space-movement, in which also people and goods are moved as object of illicit trades. The paper first points out the differences between the various criminal systems that are crossed by the related illegal routes and examines the degree of presence in them of transnational criminal groups and their respective main organisational forms. In particular, there is highlighted the emergence of organizations, that can be characterized as poly-criminal, because they operate in different illicit markets (for example, people and cigarettes). The multilevel regulatory responses to this relationship between illicit markets and criminal organizations are considered, and the need is indicated to take the reference to this notion in sufficiently determined terms. To verify the degree of harmonization at European level, the focus is on the specific area of the trafficking in human beings in five European justice systems (Italy, Portugal, Greece, Spain, and Germany). Some concluding remarks are then dedicated to the issues of the possibility of formulating a general notion of illicit trades, marking the difference between its fundamental admissibility at a criminological level and the difficulties of its precise legal delimitation. The plurality of national regulations on the level of substantive law dedicated to the various illicit markets does not prevent some procedural instruments from being fungible for many of these areas (e.g. wiretapping or undercover infiltrators), and the problems connected with determining the competent jurisdiction are also common to the various illicit trades.
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This study scrutinizes the influence of certainty and uncertainty on identity and beliefs. While certainty is often perceived as positive and uncertainty as negative for an individual, this research reveals that they can operate in more nuanced ways. The focus here is understanding their effects on individuals with interconnected yet conflicting identities and beliefs. Through a case study of Antonio – a member of organized crime who also embraces identities as an artist and a migrant – narratives emerge that illustrate how these forces act upon him. Rather than merely describing how certainty and uncertainty shape involvement in organized crime, the study highlights the complexities they introduce to an individual’s various identities and beliefs systems, and reveals their alignment with specific contextual and communicative needs. This study thus holds significant implications for comprehending how attitudes toward certainty and uncertainty influence identity and belief development in a world typified by both stability and change, and how a criminal identity might intersect with other identities based on the processing of these certainties and uncertainties.
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Product counterfeiting is a large and global economic crime that causes significant economic, social and personal harms. Facilitated by the efficiency and convenience of e-commerce, finding and buying counterfeits have never been easier. Going beyond product listings on websites, counterfeiters are now using sophisticated marketing techniques to promote their illicit wares. This includes employing deviant social media influencers who violate social norms and the law to peddle counterfeit goods via channels such as YouTube and Instagram. However, very little is known about their market or their impact. Based on two UK surveys, the empirical research described in this article estimates the prevalence of consumers who purchase counterfeits because of SMI endorsements. We believe this is the first estimate of its kind anywhere. Further, the research finds that influencer marketing exploits characteristics of consumers that make them susceptible to the charms of the deviant SMIs: high susceptibility to the influence of trusted digital others, low risk awareness, high risk appetite, and prone to rationalizations that morally justify the purchases. The higher prevalence of these characteristics in young adults and males helps to explain why these demographic groups are the most likely to purchase endorsed counterfeits.
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This chapter explores the current challenges and transitional needs required to regulate digital entrepreneurship within the illicit economy by examining digital entrepreneurship relating to commercial sex and trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation. As such, new innovative digital technologies are transforming serious and organised crime operations and, thus, need to also change the way the law, enforcement, and the wider criminal justice system combat crime. The chapter seeks to expose contemporary practises of digitally-facilitated commercial sex and trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation, recent developments in law and policy in the area, emerging investigative and prosecution practises within digital online environments, as well as necessary future changes to the law and enforcement.
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The idea that Rio de Janeiro has been plunged into an actual “war” against organized crime is widely discussed and is supported by an ever-increasing number of people in Brazil. Not surprisingly, such discourse has led to less protection for the civilian population, particularly in the so-called favelas , while allowing security forces to carry out operations with even greater relative impunity. This article argues that although urban violence in Rio de Janeiro is indeed a serious problem, it does not reach the threshold required to be considered a non-international armed conflict.
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The presence of illegal organizations in economic development settings contributes to the Italian economy’s regional heterogeneity by exacerbating other inefficiencies. We aim to investigate how three indicators of awareness of criminal interest in a firm’s activities affect the latter’s efficiency, as well as examining a potential channel through which illegal activities could hinder firm performance, using a unique set of firm–level data. According to our findings, the presence of criminal network pressure in a firm’s environment reduces its technical efficiency and propensity to invest. This phenomenon is particularly strong in Italy’s underdeveloped regions, across all illicit considered and risk classes, with inefficiency doubling when the fear of crime becomes significant. A similar pattern emerges in terms of firm investment proclivity. The research findings are relevant for policymakers because they demonstrate that even the perception of a criminal threat has significant effects on a firm’s performance; consequently, enhancing legal protection could prevent significant economic and social costs.
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Through an inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with experts, this study corroborates key findings on contextual and organisational dynamics behind profit-driven cybercrime. The findings pinpoint three contextual factors influencing individuals to participate in profit-driven cybercrime: lack of legal economic opportunities, lack of deterrents, and drifting means. The findings also highlight how experts perceive group structures of those behind profit-driven cybercrime: as organised, enterprise-like, loose networks, or communities. Experts’ narratives, moreover, emphasise the presence of a workforce at the periphery of cybercrime groups. Such a workforce is not actively involved in developing criminal schemes, yet it helps their orchestration by achieving necessary tasks such as writing texts or developing software. The study results confirm key insights on crime participation related to both cyber and non-cybercrime literature while also raising new research avenues, including questions concerning to what extent those forming the peripheral workforce are willing to participate in cybercrime.
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Fifty-two years ago, in 1971, President Nixon declared the “War on Drugs”, identifying drug abuse as a public enemy in the United States. Since then, US drug policy has been militarized and, more recently, privatized. Every year, the US government increasingly contracts private military and security companies to provide intelligence, logistical support and training to armed forces in drug-producing or drug-transit States. In Latin America, this militarization and privatization has increased the intensity of violence and has complexified domestic situations, to the extent that the existing international legal regimes now seem inappropriate to respond to the challenges posed by the War on Drugs. On the one hand, human rights law does not adequately address situations where the State faces organized crime groups that are able to control territory. On the other hand, international humanitarian law (IHL) was not created to address law enforcement situations, which the War on Drugs and the fight against organized crime ostensibly are. This article examines the situation in Latin America, looking at examples of different types of situations through the lens of intensity and organization of the group involved and, in some cases, the group's control over territory. It discusses the application of IHL and human rights law (focusing on the inter-American system of human rights) in these situations and their complementarity, and debates how these bodies of law are adapting or may need to be adapted.
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The Dark Web serves as a key venue for peddling illegal goods and services, from stolen possessions and drugs to illicit activities. The concurrent increase in Tor network usage and the development of cryptocurrency has led to the creation of major black market sites. One of the most popular illicit services offered on the Dark Web is hacking, which includes website/social media account hacking, Denial-of-service attacks, and custom malware. At the same time, the Dark Web community has formed its own justice system leveraging the layer of anonymity that exists between underground community users and the cybercrime ecosystem. Existing studies predominantly focus on the major drug market operating on the Dark Web, firearm sales, sexual exploitation, and money laundering. To address the gaps in the current research as well as the relative nascency of an underground justice system to monitor hacking services on the Dark Web, this study attempts to broadly capture the dynamic nature of hacking services, which requires continuous research to identify new trends and develop effective responses. The study aims to examine the characteristics and the operations of the hacking service market and the underground justice system on the Dark Web via an in-depth examination of Dark Web forums with a crime script analysis vis-à-vis thematic analysis. The study defines the crime script as that which includes pretrial, mid-trial, finalization, and exit stages. This research sheds light on Dark Web justice courts’ procedures and the courts’ implications for shaping the future of the Dark Web.
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Illicit darknet markets (DNMs) are highly uncertain and in a perpetual state of flux. These markets thrive in a zero-trust, high-risk environment. However, the trustworthiness of vendors plays a critical role in illicit transactions and the sustainability of the illegal trade of goods and services on DNMs. Focusing on the illicit fentanyl trade and applying signaling theory and embedded mixed methods design, we examined different ways that trustworthiness is signaled by vendors on darknet sites. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, in recent years, has been declared a public health emergency in the United States due to its high potency and unprecedented number of deaths associated with its use; however, the topic remains understudied and requires urgent attention. There are few studies that have focused on fentanyl trafficking on DNMs and no mixed method studies that have focused specifically on trust signals in DNM fentanyl networks. In our research, first, we conducted a focus group and in-depth interviews with criminal justice professionals to understand the inner workings of darknet sites, fentanyl networks, and how trust is assessed. Second, we scraped select darknet sites to collect and curate scraped data for later examination of vendor trustworthiness on DNMs. Third, using signaling theory to understand how vendors signal trustworthiness on select darknet sites selling drugs, including fentanyl, we applied both qualitative and quantitative content analysis of DNM features, and language used in vendor profiles, listings, and product/vendor reviews, to inform the development of a trustworthiness index. In this research, we used software, such as Atlas.ti and Python, to analyze our data. The main purpose of this article is to provide an in-depth description of the mixed methods approach we used to inform the development of a vendor trustworthiness index, which we used to examine trust between illicit fentanyl vendors and buyers. Our research can serve as a guide for the development of DNM vendor trustworthiness index for future research on other illegal markets.
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The rise in illicit drug trafficking on darknet markets (DNMs) was boosted by those restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to put this trend into context by exploring the characteristics of vendors’ services and reputations and understand how products are advertised and what customers tend to value. Qualitative content analysis was conducted on a sample ( n = 100) randomly selected from 6,357 product descriptions and a sample ( n = 500) randomly selected from 34,619 reviews. Both samples are from products found in the drug category of the darknet market Dark0de Reborn. On the supply side, vendors tended to provide basic information on the drugs, a mention of their high quality, the speed and stealth of delivery, their availability for responding to messages, the effects of the drugs, and sometimes even instructions for use. Regarding the demand side, customers usually praised the quality of the product, mentioned the speed and stealth-secure packaging of delivery as essentials, and expressed only a small number of issues. These results support the applicability of Norbert Elias’ social figuration theory in which the interdependencies of the actors are fueled by trust. This theoretical frame sheds light on the social value of the community of DNMs. Furthermore, the findings formulate a robust hypothesis for future research about the previously undervalued role of delivery providers.
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Transactions on the darknet are notoriously difficult to examine. Prior criminological research has generally used web scraping and qualitative text analysis to examine illegal darknet markets. One disadvantage of this process is that individuals can lie. Fortunately for researchers, the currency used for transactions on the darknet, cryptocurrency, is designed to be tracked. In this article, we examine transactions from a former darknet marketplace, AlphaBay. Using the blockchain, we examine the interconnectedness of both legal and illegal cryptocurrencies. In addition, we provide a structured approach to quantitatively examine the Bitcoin blockchain ledger, offering both the tools and our own experiences for other researchers interested in such approaches. While cybersecurity, information technology, accounting, and other disciplines can examine the financial data itself, we believe that criminologists can provide additional benefits in pattern analysis and organizing the context and theory around the transactions. Our results show that cryptocurrency transactions are generally identifiable (90%) and involve likely illegal transactions, transactions that attempt to obfuscate other transactions, and legal transactions. We end with a discussion of newer cryptocurrencies and related technology and how they will likely shape future work.
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The dark web is a subsection of the deep web that conventional search engines cannot index. As an encrypted network of websites, the dark web can only be accessed using special browsers such as Tor. Tor, formerly an acronym for “The Onion Router,” is a free and open-source software intended to protect the personal privacy of its users and keep their internet activities unmonitored. While the dark web is known for both legitimate and illegitimate purposes, it remains notorious for facilitating illegal and deviant activities ranging from drug dealing to child pornography, human trafficking, arms dealing, and extremist recruitment. Accordingly, researching and understanding the dark web is a critical and essential step in fighting and preventing cybercrime. However, studying the dark web poses unique challenges. This special issue seeks to provide a platform for researchers and criminologists to share and discuss research designs and methods that help shed light on the actual activity going on in the dark web’s shadowy realms.
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Based on 3 years of ethnographic research, this chapter departs from the depiction of the h200d—a local neighborhood in the city of The Hague and the home base of the Dutch Crips —as an “office.” Building on the “crime as work” perspective, this metaphor is used to examine the local embeddedness of the Dutch Crips and their criminal activities. First, the usage of the term “office” shows how the local neighborhood serves as a meeting place of gang members but also for partners in crime in need of (criminal) goods, services, or information. Second, the metaphor of the “office” also sheds light on the Crips’ “employees” (gang members), their “business” (criminal activities), and issues related to both the employees and their business endeavors. This case study illustrates that the local embeddedness of the Dutch Crips not only is beneficial for the gang but also hinders their growth and expansion.
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In addition to being the gateway to Europe, the port of Rotterdam’s logistical facilities and services are also abused by organized crime. Large drug seizures and corruption cases have made clear that the port of Rotterdam is a hub for the transit of cocaine. Based on qualitative research, consisting of 73 interviews with public and private actors, an analysis of 10 criminal investigations, and field visits to public and private organizations in the port, this chapter provides insights into the phenomenon of drug trafficking via the port of Rotterdam and the approach to it. This chapter discusses the nature, scope, social organization, and logistical process of drug trafficking, with special attention to the vulnerable locations and sectors in the port complex. In addition, it evaluates the approach to drug crime involving both public and private actors in and around the port of Rotterdam.