Researching Illicit Markets: Online, Offline and In-Between

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Assessing the characteristics of illicit enterprises is a difficult task. Illicit markets are by their very nature difficult to monitor and study as participants have little to gain by cooperating with researchers. In recent years, new technologies have emerged as an additional important source of information for social science research. The digital revolution is generating high-volume data through multiple forms of online behavior that researchers can use to gain insights into contemporary social problems.
This panel contributes to a small but growing literature on the use of digital data to research illicit markets. The panel looks at a variety of illicit enterprises including drug trafficking, drug manufacturing and prostitution using four distinct analytical methods: crowdsourcing, web crawling, (n)ethnography and content analysis of online forums.
The studies help illustrate the patterns of behavior that organizations and/or the markets engage in over time, contributing to our understanding of how organizations and markets evolve in the face of outside and inside pressures.
The panel adds to the current discussion on using new forms of data in criminology by suggesting that digital methods are an inexpensive and rapid approach for getting (near) real-time information from traditionally hard-to-reach and/or uncooperative populations engaging in deviant behavior.

Sub Unit

• Area V. Types of Offending / 16. Drugs

Individual Presentations

• Finding the Safest Risk: Acquiring Chemicals and Precursors for Clandestine Chemistry - Sabrina Vidal, Université de Montréal

• Emerging Markets for Illicit Substances in Scandinavia. A Mixed Method Study - Jakob Demant, University of Copenhagen; Rasmus Munksgaard, University of Copenhagen; Silje Bakken, University of Oslo

• Digital Traces of Mobility, Migration and Risk in a Danish Population of Sex Workers - Rasmus Munksgaard, University of Copenhagen; Jakob Demant, University of Copenhagen

• Crowdsourcing Drug-related Data: A Pilot Study on the Use of Crowdsourcing for Collecting Data on Retail Drug Prices - Luca Giommoni, Cardiff University

Chair

• Luca Giommoni, Cardiff University

Discussant

• David Décary-Hétu, École de criminologie, Université de Montréal