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| Inchoate offenses |
| Offense against the person |
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| Sexual offenses |
| Crimes against property |
| Crimes against justice |
| Crimes against the public |
| Crimes against animals |
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Blackmail is acriminal act ofcoercion using athreat.
As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways incommon law jurisdictions. In theUnited States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a threat to do something that would cause a person to suffer embarrassment or financial loss.[1] By contrast, in theCommonwealth its definition is wider: for example, the laws ofEngland and Wales andNorthern Ireland state that:
A person is guilty of blackmail if, with a view to gain for himself or another or with intent to cause loss to another, he makes any unwarranted demand with menaces...[2][3]
In popular culture, 'blackmail' involves a threat to reveal or publicize eithersubstantially true orfalse information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to family members or associates rather than to the general public.
Acts of blackmail can also involve using threats of physical, mental or emotional harm, or of criminal prosecution, against the victim or someone close to the victim.[4][5] It is normally carried out for personal gain, most commonly of position, money, or property.[4][6][7][8]
Blackmail may also be considered a form ofextortion[4] and may be covered in the same statutory provision as extortion.[9] Although the two are generally synonymous, extortion is the taking of personal property by threat of future harm.[10] Blackmail is the use of threat to prevent another from engaging in a lawful occupation and writing libelous letters or letters that provoke a breach of the peace, as well as use of intimidation for purposes of collecting an unpaid debt.[11]
In many jurisdictions, blackmail is a statutory offense, often criminal, carrying punitive sanctions for convicted perpetrators. Blackmail is the name of astatutory offense in the United States, England and Wales, and Australia,[12] and has been used as a convenient way of referring to certain other offenses, but was not a term used inEnglish law until 1968.[13]
Blackmail was originally a term from theScottish Borders meaning payments rendered in exchange for protection from thieves and marauders.[6][11][14][15]
The word blackmail is variously derived from the word formailing (in modern terms,protection racket) paid by English and Scottish border dwellers toBorder Reivers in return for immunity from raids and other harassment. The "mail" part of blackmail derives fromMiddle Englishmale, "rent, tribute," from Old Norsemál (“agreement, speech, lawsuit”).[15] This tribute was paid in goods or labour (reditus nigri, or "blackmail"); the opposite isblanche firmes orreditus albi, or "white rent" (denoting payment in silver). Alternatively,Mackay derives it from twoScottish Gaelic wordsblathaich pronounced (the th silent) bla-ich (to protect) andmal (tribute, payment), cf.buttock mail. He notes that the practice was common in theScottish Highlands as well as theBorders.[16] In theIrish language, the termcíos dubh, meaning "black rent", was used for similar exactions.
Some scholars have argued that blackmail should not be a crime.[17][18][19][20] Objections to the criminalization of blackmail often rest on what legal scholars call "the paradox of blackmail": it takes two separate actions that, in many cases, people are legally and morally entitled to do, and criminalizes them if done together. One American legal scholar uses the example of a person who threatens to expose a criminal act unless he is paid money. The person has committed the crime of blackmail, even though he separately has the legal right both to threaten to expose a crime and to request money from a person.[21]
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| Sexual offenses | ||
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