التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
| العنوان: |
Shedding Light on the Dark: The Impact of Legal Enforcement on Darknet Transactions. |
| المؤلفون: |
Chan, Jason, He, Shu, Qiao, Dandan, Whinston, Andrew |
| المصدر: |
Information Systems Research; Mar2024, Vol. 35 Issue 1, p145-164, 20p |
| مصطلحات موضوعية: |
SILK Road, DRUG traffic, DRUGS of abuse, LAW enforcement agencies, DRUG dealers |
| الشركة/الكيان: |
NATIONAL University of Singapore |
| مستخلص: |
Practice and Policy-Oriented Abstract Law enforcement bodies have largely responded to the increase in darknet activities through site shutdowns, which involve significant investment of policing resources. Despite these efforts, new darknet sites continue to show up after the site takedowns. We offer a new look at this issue by assessing the viability of selectively targeting large drug vendors operating on darknet sites. We find that the arrest of a major drug vendor reduced subsequent transaction levels by 39% and the number of remaining vendors by 56% on Silk Road 2.0. This deterrent effect also spilled over to drug vendors located in countries beyond the prosecutorial jurisdiction of the arrested vendor. We further find that small darknet drug vendors were most deterred by the arrest and vendors selling dangerous drugs were relatively more deterred. Our study findings hold policy-relevant implications to government agencies and law enforcement. Whereas site shutdowns can disrupt these markets momentarily, the selective targeting of large-scale drug vendors should be given serious consideration and used to a broader extent. The design of future enforcement strategies should also account for the finding that darknet markets are made up of both small-scale drug dealers new to the drug trade and large-scale drug syndicates. Darknet markets have been used increasingly for the transaction of drugs in the last decade. The growth of illicit drug transactions on darknet markets has led enforcement agencies to invest a greater proportion of time and effort to monitor and crack down on criminal activities on darknet websites. Whereas large-scale site-shutdown efforts involving policing agencies across various countries can help in slowing down the growth of these markets, such enforcement strategies may not be sustainable in the long run given the cost and time they require to coordinate. Thus, there is a need for alternative, cost-efficient strategies to police darknet markets on a regular basis. In response, this study attempts to empirically evaluate and quantify the effectiveness of selectively targeting large drug vendors on darknet sites. Using data from the three largest darknet markets, we employ a difference-in-differences procedure to assess the impact of the arrest of a major drug dealer on subsequent darknet activities. Specifically, we contrast various outcomes from the policed site (Silk Road 2) with those from nonpoliced sites (Agora and Evolution) and find that enforcement efforts on the policed site reduced subsequent transaction levels and the number of remaining vendors. The enforcement was not only effective in deterring users in the same country as the arrestees, but also had a spillover effect on darknet participants who were beyond the prosecutorial jurisdictions of the arrestees. Test results on heterogeneous effects further suggest that small darknet drug vendors were most deterred by the arrest event and drug vendors selling dangerous drugs were more deterred relative to those selling less dangerous drugs. Our findings have policy and theoretical implications for law makers, enforcement agencies, and academics. History: Kai-Lung Hui, Senior Editor; Debabrata Dey, Associate Editor. Funding: This study acknowledges the support of the Networks, Electronic Commerce, and Telecommunications Institute grant and the National University of Singapore Academic Research Fund Tier 1 Research Grant [Grant R-253-000-171-114]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.1222. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| قاعدة البيانات: |
Complementary Index |
