Prelims

Half Title Page

Digital Transformations of Illicit Drug Markets

Series Page

EMERALD STUDIES IN DIGITAL CRIME, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL HARMS

Series Editors:

James Martin, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Asher Flynn, School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia

Over the past two decades, digital technologies have come to permeate ever more aspects of contemporary life. This trend looks to continue and has profound implications for the social sciences, particularly criminology, with technology-facilitated offences now arguably constituting the most dynamic and rapidly growing area of contemporary crime. Despite this development, the discipline of criminology has been slow to embrace the critical study of technology-facilitated offences and social harms, with most research conducted in this area still informed by a relatively narrow range of cybersecurity and applied criminological perspectives.

Emerald Studies in Digital Crime, Technology and Social Harms is part of a new movement within criminology and related disciplines to broaden this narrow focus and engage critically with new trends in technology-facilitated offending and victimisation. The book series uses a combination of critical criminological, socio-legal and sociological perspectives to consider a wide range of technology-facilitated offences and harmful social practices, ranging from digital surveillance, cyberbullying and image-based sexual abuse through global darknet drug trading.

Previous books in the series:

• Cryptomarkets: A Research Companion; James Martin, Jack Cunliffe, and Rasmus Munksgaard

• The Emerald International Handbook of Technology-facilitated Violence and Abuse; Jane Bailey, Asher Flynn, and Nicola Henry

• Information Pollution as Social Harm: Investigating the Digital Drift of Medical Misinformation in a Time of Crisis; Anita Lavorgna

• The Incel Rebellion: The Rise of the Manosphere and the Virtual War Against Women; Lisa Sugiura

Title Page

Emerald Studies in Digital Crime, Technology and Social Harms

Digital Transformations of Illicit Drug Markets: Reconfiguration and Continuity

Edited By

Meropi Tzanetakis

University of Manchester, UK

and

Nigel South

University of Essex, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2023

Editorial matter and selection © 2023 Meropi Tzanetakis and Nigel South.

Individual chapters © 2023 The authors.

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited.

This works is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of these works (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

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Published with the support of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): PUB-978-G.

Research results from: Austrian Science Fund (FWF): J4095-G27.

Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80043-869-9 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80043-866-8 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80043-868-2 (Epub)

Contents

List of Tables and Figures

Tables

Figures

About the Authors

Angus Bancroft is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. He researches illicit markets, intoxicant cultures, the impact of COVID on drug users, and approaches to harm reduction using online methods. He is the Author of The Darknet and Smarter Crime: Methods for Investigating Criminal Entrepreneurs and the Illicit Drug Economy.

Monica Barratt is an Australian drugs-policy researcher at RMIT University. Her research interests include digitally facilitated drug trading, novel psychoactive substance trends and markets, drug checking or pill testing, and ways to increase the meaningful involvement of people who use drugs in research and policy processes.

Caroline Chatwin is a Professor of Criminology at the University of Kent. Her research interests include global drug policy, new psychoactive substances, internet drug markets and the experience of imprisonment. Her most recent book Towards More Effective Global Drug Policies was published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2018.

Andrew Childs is a Lecturer in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University. His research focuses on the intersection of technology/crime and the nature of trust and risk in illicit markets online.

Charlotte Colman is a Professor of Drug Policy and Criminology at Ghent University. She has coordinated research projects on drug policy evaluation, drug supply markets, alternatives to punishment, and evolutions in criminal and drug-using careers. In 2022, she has been elected as the National Drug Coordinator responsible to coordinate the Belgian drug policy.

Ross Coomber is a Professor of Criminology and Sociology at the University of Liverpool. He has more than 30 years of research experience in the drug and alcohol field and has written extensively and broadly in this area, particularly on the nature and the machinations of illicit drug markets.

Nicolae Craciunescu has studied at the University of Essex as an undergraduate and postgraduate student. He has presented at international conferences and published on the subject of digital drug markets. He currently works in publishing but maintains a research interest in this field.

Jennifer Fleetwood is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her book Drug Mules: Women in the International Cocaine Trade won the British Society of Criminology book prize in 2015.

James Martin is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University. He is a leading authority on cryptomarkets and the dark web drugs trade and has published two books, as well as numerous quantitative and qualitative journal articles on this topic.

Stefan A. Marx is a Lecturer at the University of Vienna and a Social Worker. He currently publishes the political book series Halbwertszeit with the Viennese publisher Luftschacht Verlag. His most recent book is Gespräche gegen die Wirklichkeit (Conversations Against the Reality) with Luftschacht publisher.

Kim Moeller is an Associate Professor at the Department of Criminology at Malmö University in Sweden. His recent research has focused on the economic sociology of illicit drug distribution, fentanyl, cryptomarkets, and comparative drug control policy.

Leah Moyle is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is a Qualitative Researcher with an interest in drug markets, drug dealing, and cultures of drug use. Her research focuses primarily on understanding illicit drug markets and ‘non-commercial’ drug supply through sociological and criminological frameworks.

Emma Ryan is a Lecturer in Criminology at Deakin University. Her research examines challenges to police accountability with a focus on police use of conducted energy devices, and excessive force more broadly. She has worked in anti-corruption bodies, published chapters on criminological theory in textbooks designed for undergraduate students, and taught in the discipline of criminology for over 20 years.

Nigel South is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Essex, and has published on drugs, crime, cultures, and controls. In 2022, he received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the British Society of Criminology, and in 2013 a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Criminology, Division on Critical Criminology.

Meropi Tzanetakis is Lecturer in Digital Criminology at the University of Manchester and Research Affiliate with the Governance of Digital Practices Research Platform at the University of Vienna. Meropi’s research focuses on illicit digital markets, platformisation, and crime. Her most recent book Drugs, Darknet and Organised Crime. Challenges for Politics, Judiciary and Drug Counseling (with Heino Stöver) was published with Nomos in 2019.

Ian J Warren is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Deakin University. His research examines the legal and regulatory aspects of online evidence collection and distribution, with particular emphasis on transnational police investigations. He is the Co-author of Global Criminology (2015, Thomson Reuters) and has written widely in the areas of technology and crime, securitisation, law, and regulatory policy.

Acknowledgements

The idea for this book can be traced to conversations between the editors in the Blues coffee bar on the campus of the University of Essex when Meropi was a Visiting Research Scholar in 2018–2019. It turned into a real project when Nigel saw a flyer for the Emerald series on ‘Studies in Digital Crime, Technology and Social Harms’. So thanks to Jules Willan for originally taking it on, to Katy Mathers for taking over, and to the rest of the Emerald team—including the Series Editors Asher Flynn and James Martin. The editors are grateful to the contributors for joining the project with such enthusiasm and for such high-quality chapters. This book would not have been realised without Meropi being awarded an Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) as this enabled the editors’ conversations at the University of Essex in the first place. We are also grateful for receiving a grant by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), which facilitated Open Access publication of this book. Finally, thanks to the others who have lived with the project – Elke, Alison, and Saskia.

Nigel South and Meropi Tzanetakis

Colchester and Manchester

May 2023