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31 B. L. J. 24 (1999)
Blackmail as a Victimless Crime

handle is hein.journals/braclj31 and id is 26 raw text is: BLACKMAIL AS A VICTIMLESS CRIME1 PROFESSOR WALTER BLOCK, Professor of Economics and Finance, University of Central Arkansas, USA. DR. ROBERT McGEE, Assistant Professor of Accounting, WPaul Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, USA. The legal theory of blackmail is the veritable puzzle surrounded by a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Consider. Blackmail consists of two things, each indisputably legal on their own; yet, when combined in a single act, the result is considered a crime. What are the two things? First, there is either a threat or an offer. In the former case, it is, typically, to publicise on embarrassing secret; in the latter, it is to remain silent about this information. Second, there is a demand or a request for funds or other valuable considerations. When put together, there is a threat that, unless paid off, the secret will be told. Either of these things, standing alone, is perfectly legal. To tell an embarrassing secret is to do no more than gossip. To ask for money is likewise a legitimate activity, as everyone from Bill Clinton to the beggar to the fundraiser for the local charity can attest. Yet when combined, the result is called blackmail and it is widely seen as a crime. But that is just the puzzle. The mystery is that over a dozen attempts to account for this puzzle have been written, and not one of them agrees to any great extent with any other2. It is as if there are a plethora of witnesses to a motor vehicle accident, each not only disagreeing with all the others but each telling a completely different story. The enigma is that with the exception of a corporal's guard of commentators3 , no one The authors wish to thank the officers and trustees of the Earhart Foundation for financial support in the writing of this article. Only the former, not the latter, are responsible for the opinions expressed herein. 2 Although all the following agree that blackmail should remain criminalised, there is virtually no overlap in the reasoning of any of them. See Scott Altman: A Patchwork Theory of Blackmail (1993) 141 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1639; Jennifer Gerarda Brown: Blackmail as Private Justice (1993) 141 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1935; Debra J. Campbell: Why Blackmail Should be Criminalised: A Reply to Walter Block and David Gordon (1988) 21 Loy.L.A.L.Rev. 883; Sidney W. DeLong: Blackmailers, Bribe Takers, and the Second Paradox (1993) 141 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1663; Richard Epstein: Blackmail, Inc. (1983) 50 U.Chi.L.Rev. 553; George P. Fletcher: Blackmail: The Paradigmatic Case (1993) 141 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1617; Douglas H. Ginsburg and Paul Shechtman: Blackmail: An Economic Analysis of the Law (1993) 141 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1849; Wendy J. Gordon: Truth and Consequences: The Force of Blackmail's Central Case (1993) 141 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1741. 3 Eric Mack: In Defense of Blackmail (1982) 41 Philosophical Studies 274; Walter Block: The Blackmailer as Hero (The Libertarian Forum, December 1972)- pp.l-4; Walter Block: Trading Money for Silence University of Hawaii Law Review, Volume 8, No.1, Spring 1986- pp.57-73; Walter Block: The Case for De- Criminalising Blackmail: A Reply to Lindgren and Campbell Western State University Law Review, Vol. 24. No. 2, Spring, 1997- pp.225-246; Walter Block: A Libertarian Theory of Blackmail Irish Jurist, VoI.XXXIII, 1998. pp.280-310; Walter Block: Toward a Libertarian Theory of Blackmail, forthcoming, Journal of Libertarian Studies; Walter Block and Stephan Kinsella: The Second Paradox of Blackmail, forthcoming: Walter Block and Robert W. McGee: Lets Legalise Blackmail, forthcoming; Walter Block and

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