Doctoral Dissertation Research: Crackdowns and Innovative Adaptations in the Digital Age of Drug Trade

该项目探讨了数字时代的毒品交易是如何组织的，以及该组织如何受到执法打击的影响。这项研究将解决社会学研究中关于信息技术如何改变社会的一个核心悖论：虽然互联网是一股解放的力量，例如因为它帮助人们以低成本组织跨越时间和距离的社交活动，但同样的通信技术扩展了现有的权力结构，例如通过对持不同政见的公民进行大规模监控。通过研究这两种力量之间的冲突--在这种情况下，一方面是以互联网为媒介的犯罪，另一方面是执法行动--该项目探索了数字时代社会控制工作的意想不到的后果，因为目标群体正在努力克服阻止它们的努力。调查违禁商品和服务数字市场长期存在的刑事司法方法的后果，将为正在进行的关于毒品政策改革的辩论提供信息，更广泛地说，将扩大对社会行为监管的知识。拟议的项目将推进对非法市场的研究？直接通过所进行的研究，间接通过向其他研究人员公开所有关于贸易模式的量化数据。2014年，Co-Pi采访了一名英国男子，他经营着一家名为“相当多年”的大型毒品交易公司，专门经营鸦片和大麻。最近向电子商务的转变改变了他的业务。“(现在)我们的目标不同了。”在数字市场，“你可以制定有组织的计划，实现可实现的目标，你可以以受控的方式扩张。”另一位受访者说，在他开始在网上贩卖之前，他以前没有毒品交易的经验。他当时解释说，他与客户或供应商没有面对面的互动--他在家里的厨房里生产化学药物，通过互联网处理所有订单，并通过传统的邮政服务发送精心包装的产品。他说，他的计划是严格保持数字化。“在互联网之外，我与任何可以销售产品的环境都没有联系。我不想冒险暴露在警方可能知道的环境中。”这两家供应商在一个后来被执法部门关闭的市场上很活跃，但两家都继续在其他市场做生意。这个项目问的是，非法商品和服务的数字贸易是如何组织的，市场主体是如何适应执法的？S努力阻止他们？根据从违禁商品和服务的数字市场收集的定量数据，这项研究详细说明了这些市场如何成功地组织了规模的贸易，而直到最近，只有能够获得军事、政治和经济资本的犯罪集团才能做到这一点，以及在几次执法打击后，贸易是如何继续进行的。为了解释为什么和如何面对执法，供应商和客户继续他们被禁止的活动，将对客户和供应商进行访谈。

The project explores how drug trade in the digital age is organized, and how that organization is affected by law enforcement crackdowns. The research will address a central paradox in sociological research about how information technology is changing society: while the internet is a force of liberation, e.g. because it helps people organize social activities across time and distance at low cost, the same communication technology extends existing power structures, e.g. through large-scale surveillance of dissenting citizens. By studying clashes between these two forces--in this case represented by internet-mediated crime on the one hand and law enforcement operations on the other--the project explores the unintended consequences of social control work in the digital age, as targeted groups struggle to overcome the efforts to halt them. Investigating the consequences of long-standing criminal justice methods in digital markets for banned goods and services will inform the ongoing debate on drug policy reform, and more broadly, expand the knowledge of the policing of social behavior. The proposed project will advance research on illegal markets ? directly through the undertaken research, and indirectly by making all quantitative data on trade patterns publicly available for other researchers. In 2014, the Co-PI interviewed a British man who had been running a "largeish" drug dealing operation for "quite a few years", specializing in opium and cannabis. A recent shift to e-commerce had transformed his business. "Our goals are different [now]." In digital markets, "you can make structured plans, attainable goals, you can expand in a controlled manner." Another interviewee said he had no prior experience with drug trade before he started vending online. He explained at the time that he has no face-to-face interaction with customers or suppliers--he produces his chemical drugs in his home kitchen, processes all orders through the internet, and sends his meticulously packed products by conventional postal services. His plan is to remain strictly digital, he said. "I have no contact with any milieu where I can sell my products, outside of the internet. I have no desire to risk exposure in milieus the police might know of." The two vendors were active in a market that has since been shut down by law enforcement, but both continued to do business in other markets. This project asks, how is digital trade of illegal goods and services organized, and how are market actors adapting to law enforcement?s efforts to stop them? Drawing on quantitative data collected from digital markets for banned goods and services, the research details how the markets successfully organize trade on a scale that was, until recently, only possible for criminal syndicates with access to military, political and economic capital, and how the trade continued after several law enforcement crackdowns. To explain why and how vendors and customers continued their banned activities in the face of law enforcement, interviews with customers and vendors will be conducted.