Policing illegal drug and wildlife trades - the role of the police, legal online platforms, private organisations and individuals, and cybercriminal traders

Thesis

This thesis explores the actors and activities involved in the policing of online illegal drug and wildlife trades on the Darknet and surface web. As the role of policing evolves due to advances in technology, the blurring of national boundaries, the increasing knowledge and skills of other actors, and the growing volume and value of these trades, more research is required about who and what is involved in this endeavour to increase its efficiency.

Policing has been argued to take place in a network, where various actors come together to perform operations (Dupont, 2004). One of the most recent policing classifications is Button (2019)’s policing taxonomy which involves technological components. This thesis designs its own policing framework and tests the relevance of Button (2019)’s model in the context of online illegal drug and wildlife trades. Beyond the Police which possess powers of search and arrest to protect citizens, legal online platforms have created trading policies and are monitoring and punishing misconduct on their sites to preserve their legality and reputation. Organisations and individuals in the private sector, non-profits, and academia have been gathering, analysing, and sharing data and expertise to help Police investigations and inform the public. Cybercriminal traders have also taken advantage of others for their own financial gain and consequently decreased trust on Darknet markets, as well as unintentionally providing the Police with ways to disrupt their markets from the inside.

This exploratory research used mixed social science methods to gather complimentary quantitative and qualitative insights. Semi-structured interviews were performed with 20 experts in Police agencies, legal platforms, for-profit and non-profit organisations, and academia. The content of 200 Police and private organisation reports, news articles, blog posts, and legal platforms’ trading policies was analysed. A pilot laboratory experiment also tested the behaviour of 138 participants following trust-related policing interventions in a fictitious online marketplace.

This thesis contributes to the fields of sociology and (cyber)criminology by designing a new cyber policing classification based on the policing of online illegal drug and wildlife trades and by formulating the first ‘policing script’ summarising the activities various policing actors perform in this context, when, with whom, and how they complement each other.

Authors: Sebagh, L

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-zbgdvgqq1
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: policing; cybercriminal trade
• Subjects: Criminology; Cyber Security; Social sciences--Experiments