Dark Web: A Facilitator of Crime

Anonymity is easy to accomplish on the internet through VPNs and onion routing. Anonymity can be good if you are trying to view pro-democracy content or western news in China, however, not all people are gaining internet anonymity for altruistic reasons. Internet crime has been on the rise and web browsers like TOR are helping to facilitate internet crime. The dark web is helping create online marketplaces for illicit goods, and these web criminals are harder to catch and with globalization even harder to prosecute. Law enforcement has been struggling to curtail internet crime due to a knowledge barrier and further jurisdictional problems once perpetrators are apprehended. The goal of this paper is to analyze how the dark web works, secures anonymity, and how it helps protect criminals and allow illegal marketplaces. It also aims to discuss different strategies law enforcement has been adapting to crack down on internet crime.