Dark web: Study reveals how new offenders get involved in online paedophile communities

The “dark web” – a collection of heavily encrypted websites, forums and social networks – notoriously provides spaces for illegal activities. It’s where child sexual offenders meet to support each other and share indecent images and advice on abuse techniques – with near-complete anonymity. This provides a resource for individuals to learn the “skills” to become more dangerous offenders.

In response, some law enforcement agencies deploy undercover officers to enter these spaces posing as offenders to gather intelligence. But we don’t hear much about these communities. When it comes to online child abuse, it is largely stories of online grooming that dominate the press. As part of my recent PhD research, however, I offer an insight into dark web communities of sexual offenders by analysing their language.

Interactions between offenders have a devastating impact on victims. We need to understand them better, especially if this helps police to disrupt offending communities. Given that the online activities are almost exclusively linguistic, a good way to do this is with language analysis. This can help us understand how an officer might “authentically” portray an offender online.

Abusive communities are governed by strict rules – for example, not giving out personal information – to preserve security. Invariably, they are made up of members with varying levels of offending experience and expertise. An interesting subgroup are those who identify as “newbies”, with little or no experience of abusing or interacting in dark web environments.

Understanding newbies can help determine offenders’ experience levels. It is the first step to tracking how offenders progress to become more experienced and prolific. It can also help undercover police to portray realistic identities. When interacting with offenders who are often extremely distrustful and keenly aware of possible police presence, posing as the newbie might in fact be the easiest way to enter an offending community.

Συνέχεια ανάγνωσης εδώ