Criminal markets: the dark web, money laundering and counterstrategies - An overview of the 10th Research Conference on Organized Crime

Wéber, Júlia; Kruisbergen, Edwin W.

doi:10.1007/s12117-019-09365-8

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…These are all empirical questions, which require evidence to support or refute. A lack of systematic data collection leaves researchers to generate data based on available information, resulting in many small-scale, and regional studies, and the speculation of experts (Kumar & Tidey, 2020;Mahadevan, 2020;Tilley & Hopkins, 2008;Weber & Kruisbergen, 2019). These studies are quite useful, but they cannot paint a big picture of trends across a large area.…”

Section: The Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Organized Crime as Financial Crime: The Nature of Organized Crime as Reflected in Prosecutions and Research

Albanese

2021

Victims & Offenders

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Organized crime is a financial crime because its objective is profit or other material gain. The provision of illicit goods and services dominates organized crime profit making. Sometimes an organized crime offense is directed at power or intimidation (in cases such as racketeering or extortion), but these actions are designed to ensure the survival and profitability of an ongoing criminal enterprise. Therefore, organized crime has important similarities to the white-collar forms of financial crimes. What has been lacking in organized crime research is a comparison of actual cases of organized crime (i.e., prosecutions and convictions) to determine the extent to which organized crime prosecutions correspond to the specific offenses being researched on organized crime. An entire calendar year of organized crime prosecutions and published research articles are examined to evaluate their similarities and differences. In addition, aspects of organized crime prosecutions reveal important similarities and differences from other forms of financial crime. KEYWORDS organized crime; financial crime; white-collar crime; prosecution The problem Organized crime is a generic term like pornography. It has an amorphous meaning and often is not defined clearly in law, if at all. The result is imprecision. What distinguishes organized crime from other crimes? What makes organized crime "organized"? How do we determine trends in organized crime? A consensus definition of organized crime was derived from the work of multiple authors over the years. In succinct form, organized crime is a continuing criminal enterprise with several important elements (

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Section: The Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Organized Crime as Financial Crime: The Nature of Organized Crime as Reflected in Prosecutions and Research

Albanese

2021

Victims & Offenders

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“…In cryptomarkets or forums, which may facilitate most of the buying and selling considered in the context of willing transactions, participants in any given transaction are likely to value anonymity and security, due to the illicit nature of the purchase and, particularly for new buyers, the uncertain delivery of the product or services purchased. To respond to these trust concerns, participants make transactions that often involve cryptocurrencies and escrow services (Janze 2017;Hutchings 2018;Weber and Kruisbergen 2019).…”

Section: Willing Transactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Escrow services serve as guarantors for payment, thus underwriting trust, an oftennecessary feature, given the irreversibility of most cryptocurrencies. For a percentage of the total payment transacted, escrow services hold payment for the buyer, releasing payment to the provider once the provider has fulfilled what it promised (Janze 2017;Hutchings 2018;Weber and Kruisbergen 2019). The role that escrow services played in building trust in anonymous marketplaces was the key for early darkweb marketplaces' success (Pace 2017).…”

Section: Willing Transactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Criminal Transactional Methods in Cyberspace as Understood in an International Context

et al. 2021

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McMurdie 2016), due to the quickly-evolving and vast nature of these crimes (Holt 2018), which typically involve more effort and cross-border expense and access difficulties than do most offline crimes in the Pursue mode. Policing has been slow to adjust to the rise of digital crimes and fraud, not least because it often means giving up functions currently performed, which meet resistance (HMICFRS 2019a(HMICFRS , 2019b."Effectiveness" in policing cybercrime needs to be clearly defined and should be seen on a spectrum. The evolution of cybercrime and cyber offender strategies is fast paced, making studying and reporting on them a difficult task. In addition to this challenge, the vast majority of research is undertaken, produced, and disseminated in English and focuses on a minority of sites where actively publishing western academics are based (Cross 2018).Yet, the scope of cyber offenders, their involvement in a range of illegal activities, and the costs of policing cyber offenders, stemming from cross-jurisdictional offences, generate serious concerns for law enforcement agencies throughout the world (Carroll and Windle 2018; Gilmour 2014; Malby et al. 2013). However, little is known about the attitudes of law enforcement towards cyber offenders in those countries in which statesponsored and state-tolerated cyber offending occurs: it is simply assumed or inferred from unsuccessful pursuit that little is being done there, at least until they victimise their local populations, setting aside often well-informed and severe reactions to those deemed to be "political opponents" or acting without authorisation from those in power. Cyber offenders operate broadly across borders, creating mutual legal assistance problems, which arise from variation in legal definitions provided by different statutes (Harkin, Whelan, and Chang 2018; McMurdie 2016) as well as institutional problems of conflicting priorities even where the offenders are not statesponsored or state-tolerated/corruptors. Except where political pressure or comity can be applied from abroad, enforcement agencies generally prioritise their domestic cases over international ones. As a result, cyber offenders encounter police services that differ in their approaches for detecting, investigating, and disrupting incidents associated with cyber offenders and their collaborators/competitors. These discrepancies, in turn, lead to uncertainties about the use of disruption strategies and their effectiveness, particularly in cross-border contexts, in addition to any uncertainties for evaluations arising from uneven but generally poor data availability.With limited resources and expertise, especially in opportunity principle countries where discretion is formally allowed, 1 law enforcement must make explicit or implicit strategic decisions in its approach, focusing on what it believes will yield the largest impacts while working within the political and economic constraints of its local CrimRxiv Evaluating Criminal Transactional Methods in Cyberspace as Understood in...

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“…Organised Crime is often accused of as being used as "a catchphrase to express the growing anxieties" on the growth of illicit markets (Leukfeldt et al, 2017;Paoli, 2002). Therefore, it would seem that the alleged link between cyberspace and OC lacks of sufficient empirical evidences, and that seems to be more part of a process of "moral panic" (Lavorgna, 2018;Lusthaus, 2013) As evidenced, Darknet markets are locate into the global illicit supply chain: they provide a novel form of retail distribution, having an impact on the last mile of the supply chain, leaving existing trafficking routes intact (Dittus et al, 2018;Duxbury & Haynie, 2018;Weber & Kruisbergen, 2019).…”

Section: Organised Crime Role On Drug Trafficking On Darkmarketsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In conclusion, it is not clear the direct role of OC on darkmarkets, it is not even clear if there are vendors directly related or associated to OC, however it is important to consider that Mafias often works at the level of "supplier" of drugs, providing the link between international drug markets and local sellers, and often rely on diverse supply chains and a plurality of retailers (Dorn et al, 1992;Paoli, 2004), even in darkweb. Therefore, even though OC may not be directly involved in drug trafficking on darkmarkets, there are evidences that organised criminals act as providers for vendors (Weber & Kruisbergen, 2019).…”

Section: Organised Crime Role On Drug Trafficking On Darkmarketsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drug Trafficking on Darkmarkets: How Cryptomarkets are Changing Drug Global Trade and the Role of Organized Crime

Bertola

2020

AM J QUALITATIVE RES

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Drug trafficking on darknet based marketplaces has become a highly concerning topic in law enforcement activities, recently. Even though Darkmarkets represent only a tiny fraction of the global drug trade, they are changing the drug markets social networks, introducing a new paradigm of the link between vendors and buyers of drugs. The aim of this study is to critically review the darkmarkets' ecosystem and the previous literature regarding these new marketplaces, trying to investigate how the drug trade is changing with these new technologies, and the role of organised crime (OC) in these new illegal markets. And trying to understand how and whether is it involved OC on these cyber drug markets and the chain behind them. Despite opinions of part of the academy, the results show that there are no empirical evidences of direct involvement of OC as vendors in darkmarkets. However, there are evidences of an indirect role of OC in darknet drug trafficking, as supplier of illegal drugs to the online-vendors.

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Criminal markets: the dark web, money laundering and counterstrategies - An overview of the 10th Research Conference on Organized Crime

Cited by 20 publications

References 3 publications

Organized Crime as Financial Crime: The Nature of Organized Crime as Reflected in Prosecutions and Research

Organized Crime as Financial Crime: The Nature of Organized Crime as Reflected in Prosecutions and Research

Evaluating Criminal Transactional Methods in Cyberspace as Understood in an International Context

Drug Trafficking on Darkmarkets: How Cryptomarkets are Changing Drug Global Trade and the Role of Organized Crime

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