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This thesis explores the actors and activities involved in the policing of online illegal drug and wildlife trades on the Darknet and surface web. As the role of policing evolves due to advances in technology, the blurring of national boundaries, the increasing knowledge and skills of other actors, and the growing volume and value of these trades, more research is required about who and what is involved in this endeavour to increase its efficiency. Policing has been argued to take place in a network, where various actors come together to perform operations (Dupont, 2004). One of the most recent policing classifications is Button (2019)’s policing taxonomy which involves technological components. This thesis designs its own policing framework and tests the relevance of Button (2019)’s model in the context of online illegal drug and wildlife trades. Beyond the Police which possess powers of search and arrest to protect citizens, legal online platforms have created trading policies and are monitoring and punishing misconduct on their sites to preserve their legality and reputation. Organisations and individuals in the private sector, non-profits, and academia have been gathering, analysing, and sharing data and expertise to help Police investigations and inform the public. Cybercriminal traders have also taken advantage of others for their own financial gain and consequently decreased trust on Darknet markets, as well as unintentionally providing the Police with ways to disrupt their markets from the inside. This exploratory research used mixed social science methods to gather complimentary quantitative and qualitative insights. Semi-structured interviews were performed with 20 experts in Police agencies, legal platforms, for-profit and non-profit organisations, and academia. The content of 200 Police and private organisation reports, news articles, blog posts, and legal platforms’ trading policies was analysed. A pilot laboratory experiment also tested the behaviour of 138 participants following trust-related policing interventions in a fictitious online marketplace. This thesis contributes to the fields of sociology and (cyber)criminology by designing a new cyber policing classification based on the policing of online illegal drug and wildlife trades and by formulating the first ‘policing script’ summarising the activities various policing actors perform in this context, when, with whom, and how they complement each other.

Under majoritarian election systems, securing the participation and representation of minorities remains an open problem, made salient in the US by its history of voter suppression. One remedy recommended by the courts is the adoption of Cumulative Voting (CV) in multi-member districts: each voter has as many votes as open positions but can cumulate votes on as few candidates as desired. Historical experiences are promising but also reflect episodes of minority activism. We present the results of a controlled lab experiment that isolates the role of the voting rule from other confounds. Although each voter is treated equally, theory predicts that CV should increase the minority's turnout relative to the majority and the minority's share of seats won. Our experimental results strongly support both theoretical predictions.