Black Markets: A Comparison of the Illegal Ivory and Narcotic Trades

ABSTRACT

Similarities between the illegal wildlife and narcotics trades pose possibilities for an improved understanding of the spatial and temporal gaps identified in illegal ivory trade literature. In this paper, novel comparisons are drawn between these two black markets. Similarities include those of trade chain dynamics, loss of trade assets to seizures, consumer end product distribution, and data collection methodology, among others. The findings suggest that approaches and theories should be extracted from existing narcotics analyses and applied to future ivory market studies. This approach could provide a clearer understanding of the ivory trade, shedding light on elephant poaching incentives and the effects of policy changes. It would allow for better-informed trade and conservation policy decisions, benefitting long-term elephant conservation.     

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN WOMEN'S SEXUAL ASSAULT EXPERIENCES BASED ON TACTICS USED BY THE PERPETRATOR

Only a few studies have examined the characteristics of sexual assault based on the tactics used by the perpetrator. In this study we compared the experiences of women who were forced to engage in vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse due to verbal coercion, physical force, or intoxication. Random-digit dialing was used to obtain a sample of 272 single African American and Caucasian women between the ages of 18 and 49 from the Detroit metropolitan area. Participants completed a computer-assisted self-interview that asked detailed questions about a past sexual assault and their reactions to it. Among the 139 women who were forced to engage in vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse, sexual assaults that involved physical force produced the most severe negative outcomes. Situations that involved the woman being too intoxicated to resist differed from others primarily in terms of how much alcohol the man and woman consumed. Although all types of sexual assault were perceived as being at least moderately serious, verbally coerced assaults were on average perceived as being least serious. These findings suggest that the perpetrators' tactics affect women's responses to sexual assault.