Research

By most accounts, product counterfeiting, a specific type intellectual property crime, is growing in scope, scale and threat and poses serious economic, social and public health harms. In this article, we improve the conceptual understanding of product counterfeiting by critically exploring the validity and implications of broadly classifying this crime. Read More

Counterfeit parts in the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) supply chain threaten national security by compromising critical military operations and placing the lives of military service members at risk. With the goal of illustrating the nature of the risk as it relates to types of counterfeit parts, how they entered the supply chain, and were identified and processed through the criminal justice system, we assemble and analyze open-source information on criminal schemes involving counterfeits in the DOD supply chain. Read…

Considering the steady and rapid growth of product counterfeiting and the damage it causes to society, it is important for criminology and criminal justice scholars to assist criminal justice officials, industry practitioners, and law makers in understanding the product counterfeiting problem and developing strategies to combat it. However, for researchers to be effective in their advisory role they must first establish what is known about product counterfeiting. As a first step in this process, we investigated relevant published research through…

The growth of the Internet has expanded e-commerce, opening a vast array of purchasing options for consumers while also increasing illicit sales. Such sales place consumers at risk. This study examines consumers’ decisions to purchase cigarettes and prescription pharmaceuticals, two highly regulated goods, from online vendors. Read More

This exploratory study examines the illicit market for counterfeit products sold through small businesses in the State of Michigan. Research on small businesses facilitating illicit markets and the efforts of nonfederal law enforcement agencies to identify these small business offenders has been scant. Read More