Testing the Viability of a Web Crawler to Track Illegal Wildlife Trade on the Dark Web

• In Event: International Environmental/Green Crimes

Abstract

The illegal wildlife trade includes both live animals and animal products, and is estimated to be a multi-billion dollar business. This trade is of international concern, and though efforts are made to inhibit the collection and sale of wildlife, products are still in demand.
The internet is one venue for trade of these products. Due to the need for secrecy, the dark web is an ideal tool for trade of illegal goods.
The dark web is designed with filtering layers in place to ensure anonymity of its users.
This study is modeled after studies assessing illegal firearm trafficking on the dark web. An ad hoc web crawler or scraper was created to find offers of illegal wildlife. Those results were narrowed to include our period and location of study, and content analysis techniques were applied. A descriptive analysis is presented.

Authors

• Tiffany Gentry Rogers, Texas State University

• Danielle M Fenimore, Texas State University