Wildlife trafficking in the Internet age

Abstract

There is a broad consensus that the Internet has greatly expanded possibilities for traditional transit crimes such as wildlife trafficking. However, the extent to which the Internet is exploited by criminals to carry out these types of activities and the way in which it has changed how these crimes are carried out remains under-investigated. Based on interviews and investigative cases, this paper shows the possibilities offered by a crime script approach for understanding what kind of criminal opportunities the Internet offers for conducting wildlife trafficking and how these opportunities affect the organization of this transit crime, as concerns both the carrying out of the criminal activity and the patterns of relations in and among criminal networks. It highlights how Internet-mediated wildlife trafficking is a hybrid market that combines the traditional social and economic opportunity structure with that provided by the Internet.