Date of Submission

12-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Criminal Justice

Advisor

Michelle D. Fabiani, PhD

Keywords

Online Illicit Opioid Market Engagement, Open Web, Dark Web, CRAVED Principles, Routine Activity Theory, Experimental Vignette Methodology

LCSH

Opioid abuse, Dark Web, Drug traffic, Internet

Abstract

The state of the modern-day opioid epidemic produces the need to understand how people choose to engage in opioid markets on the web. Specifically, it is important to understand why people choose to use the open web rather than the dark web to engage in online opioid markets. Applying the theoretical frameworks of Cohen and Felson’s (1979) Routine Activity Theory and Clarke’s (1999) CRAVED principles, the decision making processes of individuals was examined using three separate Experimental Vignette Methodology surveys (EVM) administered through Connect CloudResearch. The decision-making processes of individuals engaging in online illicit opioid markets was measured using a Likert likelihood scale. A Kruskal-Wallis median comparison was used to analyze survey data. This study tested three hypotheses: (1) participants are more likely to use the open web rather than the dark web, (2) participants are more likely to utilize the open web rather than the dark web because it is more easily accessible, (3) participants are more likely to use the open web rather than the dark web because they do not care about concealing their actions. This study found that participants do not care about whether they are utilizing the dark web or open web when purchasing illicit opioids nor do they care about how accessible or concealable their actions are, with the exception of perceived economic consequences as a motive to conceal market engagement.

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