Book excerpt: As society continues to rely heavily on technological tools for facilitating business, e-commerce, banking, and communication, among other applications, there has been a significant rise in criminals seeking to exploit these tools for their nefarious gain. Countries all over the world are seeing substantial increases in identity theft and cyberattacks, as well as illicit transactions, including drug trafficking and human trafficking, being made through the dark web internet. Sex offenders and murderers explore unconventional methods of finding and contacting their victims through Facebook, Instagram, popular dating sites, etc., while pedophiles rely on these channels to obtain information and photographs of children, which are shared on hidden community sites. As criminals continue to harness technological advancements that are outpacing legal and ethical standards, law enforcement and government officials are faced with the challenge of devising new and alternative strategies to identify and apprehend criminals to preserve the safety of society. The Encyclopedia of Criminal Activities and the Deep Web is a three-volume set that includes comprehensive articles covering multidisciplinary research and expert insights provided by hundreds of leading researchers from 30 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Finland, South Korea, Malaysia, and more. This comprehensive encyclopedia provides the most diverse findings and new methodologies for monitoring and regulating the use of online tools as well as hidden areas of the internet, including the deep and dark web. Highlighting a wide range of topics such as cyberbullying, online hate speech, and hacktivism, this book will offer strategies for the prediction and prevention of online criminal activity and examine methods for safeguarding internet users and their data from being tracked or stalked. Due to the techniques and extensive knowledge discussed in this publication it is an invaluable addition for academic and corporate libraries as well as a critical resource for policy makers, law enforcement officials, forensic scientists, criminologists, sociologists, victim advocates, cybersecurity analysts, lawmakers, government officials, industry professionals, academicians, researchers, and students within this field of study.