The Darknet and Smarter Crime

Angus Bancroft is Lecturer in Sociology at The University of Edinburgh, UK. His current research interests are cyber-security, illicit markets and views of darknet users. He is the author of three previous books: Dead White Men and Other Important People (Palgrave, 2016); Drugs, Intoxication and Society (Cambridge Polity, 2009); and Roma and Gypsy-Travellers in Europe: Modernity, Race, Space and Exclusion (Avebury Ashgate, 2005).

This book draws on research into darknet cryptomarkets to examine themes of cybercrime, cybersecurity, illicit markets and drug use. Cybersecurity is increasingly seen as essential yet it is also a point of contention between citizens, states, non-governmental organisations and private corporations as each grapples with existing and developing technologies. The increased importance of privacy online has sparked concerns about the loss of confidentiality and autonomy in the face of state and corporate surveillance on one hand, and the creation of ungovernable spaces and the facilitation of terrorism and harassment on the other. These differences and disputes highlight the dual nature of the internet: allowing counter-publics to emerge and providing opportunities for state and corporate domination through control of the data infrastructure. 
The Darknet and Smarter Crime argues that, far from being a dangerous anarchist haven, the darknet and the technologies used within it could have benefits and significance for everyone online. This book engages with a number of debates about the internet and new communication technologies, including: surveillance and social control, anonymity and privacy, the uses and abuses of data encryption technologies and cyber-cultures and collective online identities

Engages with a number of debates about the internet and new communication technologies

1. Overview of The Book.- 2. Crime Is As Smart and As Dumb As The Internet.- 3. How Cryptomarkets Work.- 4. Fracturing Research In Splintering Digital Environments.- 5. Illicit Trades Are Political Economies.- 6. The Cultural Drug-Crime Confection.- 7. Cybercrime Is Not Always Rational, but It Is Reasonable.- 8. Managing Relationships in Digital Crime.- 9. How Knowledge about Drugs Is Produced In Cryptomarkets.- 10. Risk Structuring.- 11. Technology Does Not Confer Security and Transparency Does Not Confer Safety.- 12: Why Digital Crime Works.