Keywords: Extortion, Bribery, Blackmail, Hush Money, White-collar crime

Extortion is defined by the World Book Encyclopedia as an attempt to obtain money from a person by threatening to make a criminal charge against the person. People who try to commit extortion usually ask for hush money as the payment or bribe. Extortion originally meant the crime of obtaining payment by threatening to disclose misuse of official power by government officials (World Book, 1985 E p. 355). However, if this happened today the official would be guilty of the crime of bribery, and if this happened to a private person it would be considered blackmail. This is not a crime that is regularly committed in the United States, such as murder and burglary, although it has been tried in our court system on several occasions. Both bribery and blackmail are considered types of extortion in modern day law and are both punishable by a fine and time in jail.

The legal requirements for extortion are very similar to those of robbery. The Actus Reus, Latin for the "guilty act", of extortion, like robbery, is a threat to get someone else's property by doing the person harm (Samaha 2002, p. 474). It is the time of the intended harm that separates the two offenses. In robbery, the threat to hurt someone is right now, and in extortion the threat to hurt someone is later. The Men Rea, Latin for the "guilty mind", of extortion is the intent by threat of future harm to permanently deprive another of possession. In modern law, most crimes must have both a Men Rea and an Actus Reus to be considered illegal. There are three ways in which a threat to harm a victim satisfies the requirement for extortion. First, if the defendant threatens to inflict bodily harm on the victim, if the defendant threatens to damage the property of the victim, and if the defendant threatens to expose victims to shame or ridicule. Basically, the extortionist has to actually put the victim in fear that they will indeed carry out his or her threat for it to be a crime.

White-collar crime was first described by Edward H. Sutherland as a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation. This is a clear definition, although, it is a broad one that encompasses everything from embezzlement and industrial espionage to the bribery of government officials (Coleman, 1985, p. 2). Sutherland focused mainly on corporate crime, and he dissected it into two categories: those involving misrepresentation of corporate assets (such as fraud) and those that involved the manipulation of power (such as bribery). The modern definition for white-collar crime is a violation of the law committed by a person or group of persons in the course of an otherwise respected and legitimate occupation or financial activity (Coleman, 1985, p. 5). This is a much better definition because it now includes anyone who commits these crimes not just a person of high social status. White- collar crime does not discriminate because it can be done by anyone of any class, and it does not specify any particular profession. There are many varieties of white-collar crimes in the modern legal system. Some of these classifications are embezzlement, computer crime, extortion, price fixing, false advertising, tax evasion, fraud and environmental pollution.

Two of the three types of extortion have already been named but here I will give their definitions and their applicability. The first is the crime of bribery. Bribery is defined as any means of giving or offering something of value to a person in a position of trust, who in return violates his or her duty or the law in order to benefit the giver (World Book, 1985, B p. 489). Bribery is believed to be a very widespread crime that most often goes unreported. Bribery is only illegal for public officials; those who would bribe a private citizen would not be considered doing anything illegal, although, in most courts it is illegal to bribe a court officer, a juror, a witness in a trial, a labor representative, and a professional athlete. Of course, a bribe does not have to be only money; it could consist of property, a position, influence, or anything else that would constitute as a payment. A sentence for bribery could consist of a prison sentence of one to ten years, a hefty fine, or both. The second type of extortion is blackmail. Blackmail is defined as an attempt to extort money from a person by threatening to expose some damaging fact about the person or the person's past. Payment or nonpayment of the money makes no difference, for the crime is in the attempt to collect it (World Book, 1985, B p. 311). Blackmail is punishable in court the same as bribery, one to ten years imprisonment, a hefty fine, or both. Blackmail actually originated in ancient Scotland and England where an amount of money, cattle, vegetables, or anything else with value was given to pirates to keep them from looting their land. In those days the word mail meant rent or tribute. The third type of extortion is kidnapping ransom. This is the detaining or taking of another person beyond the aid of family, friends, and the law for the purpose of acquiring a ransom for his or her return. This is the most serious form of extortion in our modern law system and it is punishable by imprisonment for five to forty years and a large fine.

There have been many highly publicized extortion cases throughout the history of the United States of America, but none more famous than the kidnapping ransom of Charles Lindbergh's son. Lindbergh was the first aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. His son was kidnapped in 1932 and eventually murdered in a failed ransom attempt. Another infamous kidnapping ransom was that of Patricia Hearst in 1974. She was the daughter of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Popular extortion cases are relevant as much today as ever. One such case is the lawsuit of one-time Chicago basketball great Michael Jordan. Jordan is suing a former girlfriend, claiming that she tried to extort five million dollars from him. Jordan apparently paid this woman two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ten years ago to keep quiet about their affair. He claims that she recently threatened to go public with their affair if he did not pay her an extra five million dollars. In this country no one is safe from white-collar crime. Taxpayers lose billions and billions of tax dollars a year to white-collar crimes. It is very hard to get an exact number on the amount lost every year because it is so hard to catch white-collar criminals, and with the invention of the World Wide Web it has gotten even harder. Computer extortion continues to increase in the United States of America. One such case is that of media titan Michael Bloomberg, whose corporation was hacked into by two suspects known as Oleg ZeZov and Igor Yarimaka. The two suspects demanded two hundred thousand from Bloomberg in consulting fees in order for them to keep quiet how they compromised the Byzantine Bloomberg computer system. Fortunately, for Bloomberg the two suspects were apprehended when showing up to receive their payment by undercover British police officers. The two men were charged with three felony counts, including extortion and unauthorized computer intrusion (a newly formed law to help specifically deal with the threat of computer extortion and other computer related crimes).

Our national judicial system has had a rough time convicting criminals of white-collar crimes for many years. The first, big problem is the unbelievable amount of loopholes there are in our legal system. Regardless of what white-collar crime one commits in the United States, if they hire a good enough lawyer they can get away with it. The modern lawyers have perfected techniques to avoid tax evasion charges, insider trading, and a long list of other related white-collar crimes. Loopholes are so prevalent in our system now that who knows if we could cancel them all out. Another problem with enforcement is the lack of knowledge about the amount of white-collar crimes that are committed each year in the United States. Many crimes, such as extortion and bribery are never recorded for a very good reason. That reason is that the perpetrator does not want to be caught and the victim is either too ashamed to come forward or would prefer for no one to know what he is being extorted for or for how much. Lets take the Michael Jordan case I spoke of earlier. His onetime girlfriend received a payment of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ten years ago, but we are just hearing about it now. If Michael Jordan had not divorced his wife, he probably would have paid this woman the five million she is asking for. However, now that it is out in the open there is no threat to release anything to the public. Anyone who watches ESPN now knows the whole story because the media has been covering it twenty-four hours a day. Hopefully, these problems will be addressed by the United States Congress and something can be done about all of the loopholes in our system.

Bequai, August. (1978). White-Collar Crime: A 20^th-Century Crisis. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Books.

Coleman, James W. (1985). The Criminal Elite: The Sociology of White-Collar Crime. New York: St Martin's Press.

Jenkins, Brian M. (1985). Terrorism and personal protection. Boston, Massachusetts: Butterworth Publishers.

Katz, Leo. (1996). Ill-Gotton Gains: Evasion, Blackmail, Fraud, and Kindred Puzzles of the Law. Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.

Samaha, Joel. (2002). Criminal Law: Seventh Edition. Belmont, California: Thompson Learning, Inc.

Weisburd, David, Wheeler, Stanton, Waring, Elin, and Bode, Nancy. (1991). Crimes ofthe Middle Class. New Haven: Yale University Press.

The World Book Encyclopedia. B v. 2. (1985). Chicago, Illinois: World Book Inc.

The World Book Encyclopedia. E v. 6. (1985). Chicago, Illinois: World Book Inc.

This page available at: