Fake Meds Online: The Internet and the Transnational Market in Illicit Pharmaceuticals

by Alexandra Hall, Georgios A. Antonopoulos

Overview

This book provides a timely criminological investigation into the rapidly growing sale of fake medicines online. Some estimates suggest that the fake medicine trade has now overtaken marijuana and prostitution as the world's largest market for criminal traffickers. This increase has been particularly apparent in the context of various evolutionary phases in information and communications technologies, and the Internet now acts as the main avenue through which this criminal market is expanding. Thus far – despite growing concern and media attention – this extensive, extremely profitable, and ultimately life-threatening online market is yet to be fully explored. Drawing on the authors' own criminological investigation of both the supply and demand sides in the United Kingdom, this study offers the first in-depth and empirically-grounded analysis of the online trade in illicit medicines. Founded on rigorous research, and bolstering a rich area for debate, this book will be of particular interest for scholars of criminology and technology studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137570871
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	10/26/2016
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alexandra Hall is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the School of Social Sciences, Business and Law, Teesside University, UK.

Georgios A. Antonopoulos is Professor of Criminology at the School of Social Sciences, Business and Law, Teesside University, UK.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. The Online Trade in Illicit Pharmaceuticals: The UK Context.- 3. The Demand-Side.- 4. The Supply-Side.- 5. Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Fake Meds Online preceded issues such as Brexit, its critical analysis of the role of free trade, free movement and special economic zones raises questions for criminologists on where they stand on such issues, both politically and criminologically. Ultimately, this is a book that deserves a wide readership. As time passes, it will come to be recognized as a seminal work in both virtual ethnography and the global study of transnational criminal markets.” (Thomas Raymen, Trends in Organized Crime, Vol. 21, 2018)​

From the Publisher