Blackmail

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Blackmail (disambiguation).

Blackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a monetary demand is met. This information is usually of an embarrassing or damaging nature. As the information is substantially true, revealing the information is not criminal; the crime is demanding money to withhold it.

Blackmail is similar to extortion -- the difference being that extortion involves an underlying, independent criminal act, while blackmail does not.

The word is derived from the word for tribute paid by English and Scottish border dwellers to Border Reivers in return for immunity from raids. This tribute was paid in goods or labour (reditus nigri, or "blackmail"): the opposite is blanche firmes or reditus albi, or white rent (denoting payment by silver).

In English law, the Theft Act of 1968 defines the offence as being committed "...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; and for this purpose a demand with menaces is unwarranted unless the person making it does so in the belief -

(a) that he has reasonable grounds for making the demand; and

(b) that the use of the menaces is a proper means of reinforcing the demand."

There is no requirement in English law that the threat be to reveal information. It can involve any action detrimental to the victim.

Many debt collectors have been accused of this offence, but those pursuing legal debts generally are able to justify their threats (of repossession, for example). By contrast, those chasing illegal debts (a gambling debt, for example, is NOT enforceable under English law) who back up their demands with the threat of bodily injury are unlikely to be able to avail themselves of the same defence.

The maximum sentence under the terms of the Act is life imprisonment; this harsh sentence may be seen as appropriate because the crime has long been viewed as a form of "psychological murder."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackmail

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