Citation

Dolliver DS, Ericson SP, Love KL. Geogr. Rev. 2018; 108(1): 45-68.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Geographical Society)

DOI

10.1111/gere.12241

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

As globalization processes continue to impact patterns in drug-trafficking operations worldwide, a cyber-based dimension of the drug trade has recently emerged via the Tor Network. This study employed geovisualization and exploratory spatial data analysis to examine drug distributions of heroin, cocaine, new psychoactive substances, and prescription drugs advertised on Agora, the largest international marketplace on the Tor Network at the time of data collection. Data were collected using webcrawling software and mapped to determine the presence of statistical outliers internationally or hotspots within Europe. Global Moran's I testing revealed that drugs sourced from Europe were randomly distributed. Box maps confirmed the visual analysis that six countries (including Canada and the United States) dominated world listings across the four drug types. Globally, heroin and cocaine markets were found to be almost exclusively retail based, while new psychoactive substances and prescription drugs were sold from countries with established pharmaceutical and chemical industries.

Language: en

Keywords

drugs; exploratory spatial data analysis; Tor Network