A qualitative evaluation of two different law enforcement approaches on dark net markets

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study on discussions about two major law enforcement interventions against Dark Net Market (DNM) users extracted from relevant Reddit forums. We assess the impact of Operation Hyperion and Operation Bayonet (combined with the closure of the site Hansa) by analyzing posts and comments made by users of two Reddit forums created for the discussion of Dark Net Markets. The operations are compared in terms of the size of the discussions, the consequences recorded, and the opinions shared by forum users. We find that Operation Bayonet generated a higher number of discussions on Reddit, and from the qualitative analysis of such discussions it appears that this operation also had a greater impact on the DNM ecosystem. Index Terms—cybercrime, policy, law enforcement, qualitative, drug markets, dark webAccepted manuscrip

PANC Study (Pancreatitis: A National Cohort Study): national cohort study examining the first 30 days from presentation of acute pancreatitis in the UK

Abstract Background Acute pancreatitis is a common, yet complex, emergency surgical presentation. Multiple guidelines exist and management can vary significantly. The aim of this first UK, multicentre, prospective cohort study was to assess the variation in management of acute pancreatitis to guide resource planning and optimize treatment. Methods All patients aged greater than or equal to 18 years presenting with acute pancreatitis, as per the Atlanta criteria, from March to April 2021 were eligible for inclusion and followed up for 30 days. Anonymized data were uploaded to a secure electronic database in line with local governance approvals. Results A total of 113 hospitals contributed data on 2580 patients, with an equal sex distribution and a mean age of 57 years. The aetiology was gallstones in 50.6 per cent, with idiopathic the next most common (22.4 per cent). In addition to the 7.6 per cent with a diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis, 20.1 per cent of patients had a previous episode of acute pancreatitis. One in 20 patients were classed as having severe pancreatitis, as per the Atlanta criteria. The overall mortality rate was 2.3 per cent at 30 days, but rose to one in three in the severe group. Predictors of death included male sex, increased age, and frailty; previous acute pancreatitis and gallstones as aetiologies were protective. Smoking status and body mass index did not affect death. Conclusion Most patients presenting with acute pancreatitis have a mild, self-limiting disease. Rates of patients with idiopathic pancreatitis are high. Recurrent attacks of pancreatitis are common, but are likely to have reduced risk of death on subsequent admissions. </jats:sec

Care-­Staff Coping, Personality and Attitudes to Aggression: Analysis of the Interplay

This study examined residential care-staff’s personality, attitudes to aggression and coping responses of exposure to extreme behaviour. It aimed to replicate relationships between personality and coping at a factor level and to examine these associations in more detail at a facet level. The influence of attitudes to aggression on these relationships was also explored. Participants were care-staff from two residential units for the continuing care of young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties in Ireland. Fifteen staff completed the brief COPE, NEO-PI-R and shortened version of the Perception of Aggression Scale. Dispositional coping was measured in the specific context of work-stress from exposure to extreme behaviour. Analysis of relationships was through correlation and regression techniques. Moderation analysis was conducted through GLMs. Results showed some large personality-coping associations, but not all in the predicted directions. Facet-level analysis showed demonstrations of a more complex relationship than the factor level. Attitudes to aggression and gender moderated the relationship between personality and coping at both a factor and facet level, with both strengthening and reversal effects. A complex pattern of associations at a facet level may partially explain existing difficulties in replication of relationships between factors of personality and coping. Moderators may also account for some of the variance of effect sizes and directions of associations in previous studies

On the Resilience of the Dark Net Market Ecosystem to Law Enforcement Intervention

Dark Net Markets (DNMs) are websites found on the Dark Net that facilitate the anonymous trade of illegal items such as drugs and weapons. Despite repeated law enforcement interventions on DNMs, the ecosystem has continued to grow since the first DNM, Silk Road, in 2011. This research project investigates the resilience of the ecosystem and tries to understand which characteristics allow it to evade law enforcement. This thesis is comprised of three studies. The first uses a dataset contained publicly available, scraped data from 34 DNMs to quantitatively measure the impact of a large scale law enforcement operation, Operation Onymous, on the vendor population. This impact is compared to the impact of the closure of the DNM Evolution in an exit scam. For both events, the impact on different vendor populations (for example those who are directly affected and those who aren't) are compared and the characteristics that make vendors resilient to each event are investigated. In the second study, a dataset acquired from the server the DNM Silk Road 2.0 is used to better understand the relationships between buyers and vendors. Network analysis and statistical techniques are used to explore when buyers trade and who with. This dataset is also used to measure the impact of a hack on Silk Road 2.0 on its population. In the final study, discussions from the forum site Reddit were used to qualitatively assess user perceptions of two law enforcement interventions. These interventions were distinct in nature - one, Operation Hyperion, involved warning users and arresting individuals and the second, Operation Bayonet, actively closed a DNM. Grounded Theory was used to identify topics of conversation and directly compare the opinions held by users on each intervention. These studies were used to evaluate hypotheses incorporated into two models of resilience. One model focuses on individual users and one on the ecosystem as a whole. The models were then used to discuss current law enforcement approaches on combating DNMs and how they might be improved