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With the creation of the Internet, there has been a rapid emergence of online drug markets. Illicit online marketplaces, or cryptomarkets, are used by vendors to sell goods without the threat of interactions with others and law enforcement detection efforts. These cryptomarkets guarantee buyers and sellers anonymity through the TOR network and digital currency to perform transactions. With a lack of state supervision in dark networks, however, buyers and sellers lack protection and must instead rely on social networks. Social network analysis has been used to study a variety of phenomena, such as gangs and covert networks; however, little research has been conducted to analyze these networks on the dark web. Thus, the purpose of this study is to add to the dearth of research available on the dark web, particularly the tobacco market. The current study examines the network of an online drug distribution network, Silk Road 3.1. Transactions between buyers and sellers from the cryptomarket were recreated to identify the most central vendors. Results demonstrate that vendors of tobacco-related products are few in comparison to their buyers, but are the most central. Future research should examine cryptomarkets over time, as well as purchasing patterns to track the demand of specific products and the prevalence of specific vendors.
Advisor: | Malm, Aili |
Commitee: | Decary-Hetu, David, Nash, Becky |
School: | California State University, Long Beach |
Department: | Criminology, Criminal Justice and Emergency Management, School of |
School Location: | United States -- California |
Source: | MAI 82/6(E), Masters Abstracts International |
Source Type: | DISSERTATION |
Subjects: | Criminology, Information Technology, Communication, Web Studies, Social research, Management, Law enforcement |
Keywords: | Cryptomarket, Dark web, Drug markets, Social network analysis, Tobacco, Internet, Online drug markets, Online marketplace, Social networking, Silk Road |
Publication Number: | 28028124 |
ISBN: | 9798698594949 |