The online trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals: new criminal opportunities, trends, and challenges
The online trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals: new criminal opportunities, trends, and challenges
There is widespread agreement that the Internet is a primary market for counterfeit pharmaceuticals, but this issue has been under-investigated by criminologists. In order to effectively control this dangerous trade, considerably more knowledge about it must be assembled. This study contributes to this domain by looking at how the Internet is used to facilitate the trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Based on interviews and investigative cases analysed through a crime script, this study pinpoints the criminal opportunities made available by the specificities of the Internet, identifies what specific phases of the trafficking activity they facilitate, investigates how such opportunities are exploited, provides updated insights into how actors involved in the online market in counterfeit pharmaceuticals behave, and offers a reflection on the main challenges that have to be met to respond to this criminal phenomenon.
counterfeit, criminal opportunity, doping, internet, pharmaceuticals, script analysis
226-241
Lavorgna, Anita
6e34317e-2dda-42b9-8244-14747695598c
1 March 2015
Lavorgna, Anita
6e34317e-2dda-42b9-8244-14747695598c
Lavorgna, Anita
(2015)
The online trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals: new criminal opportunities, trends, and challenges.
European Journal of Criminology, 12 (2), .
(doi:10.1177/1477370814554722).
Abstract
There is widespread agreement that the Internet is a primary market for counterfeit pharmaceuticals, but this issue has been under-investigated by criminologists. In order to effectively control this dangerous trade, considerably more knowledge about it must be assembled. This study contributes to this domain by looking at how the Internet is used to facilitate the trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Based on interviews and investigative cases analysed through a crime script, this study pinpoints the criminal opportunities made available by the specificities of the Internet, identifies what specific phases of the trafficking activity they facilitate, investigates how such opportunities are exploited, provides updated insights into how actors involved in the online market in counterfeit pharmaceuticals behave, and offers a reflection on the main challenges that have to be met to respond to this criminal phenomenon.
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More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 5 November 2014
Published date: 1 March 2015
Keywords:
counterfeit, criminal opportunity, doping, internet, pharmaceuticals, script analysis
Organisations:
Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 386269
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/386269
ISSN: 1477-3708
PURE UUID: 18de403a-fe54-4a98-8b92-ebfbd07827e7
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Date deposited: 29 Jan 2016 11:55
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:52
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