Dr James Martin far right
Dr James Martin far right

National recognition for Macquarie researcher

Congratulations to Dr James Martin, Senior Lecturer and researcher from the Department of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism (PICT), on being awarded the New Scholar Prize by the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC).

ANZSOC’s New Scholar Prize is awarded each year for the best publication in criminology written by a member of the Society who qualifies as an early career researcher. Dr James Martin received the award for his article Lost on the Silk Road: Online drug distribution and the ‘cryptomarket.’

“I was delighted to receive this year’s prize for my work on online illicit drug markets. It will hopefully attract scholarly attention to this little understood criminal phenomenon,” Dr Martin said.

The risks posed by the rapid proliferation of online illicit marketplace and cryptomarkets (a new criminological concept) are largely unknown and require further research. Dr Martin’s article analyses the implications Silk Road has for drug consumers and law enforcement, and how online communication technologies are transforming crime.

His current research plan is to complete a large-scale study of online drug markets, a project which is currently funded through the University’s Research Development Grant scheme. The completion of this project and the New Scholar Prize award will assist in gaining support from the Australian Research Council for a larger scale project intended to commence in 2017.

Learn more about Dr Martin.