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35 Tulsa L.J. 333 (1999-2000)
Threats, Blackmail, Extortion and Robbery and Other Bad Things

handle is hein.journals/tlj35 and id is 347 raw text is: TULSA LAW JOURNAL Volume 35 Winter 2000 Number 2 ARTICLES THREATS, BLACKMAIL, EXTORTION AND ROB- BERY AND OTHER BAD THINGS Walter Block* In his article on threats, Steven Shavell starts off his analysis of threats reasonably enough, by defining and distinguishing between four different varieties.1 To put this into table form, they are as follows: Case Threat: Give me valuable consideration, or I will: 1. Robbery physically injure you or your property right now 2. Extortion physically injure you or your property in future 3. Blackmail reveal your secrets 4. Business withdraw business (refuse to buy from you)2 In the first three cases the demand is that the target of the threat give the threatener money, or perhaps some other valuable consideration such as sexual services. In the latter case, typically, the demand is for a lower price, quicker delivery, or some such. These four cases divide naturally into two subsets. In the first category, extortion and robbery, the threat is to do something that no one would deny is illegal, and should indeed be prohibited by law. Namely the threat is to engage in a physical invasion of person or property, whether now (case 1) or in the future (case 2) it matters not which. If the first two comprise a matched set, so, too, do the last. For in this pair what is being threatened, or offered, is patently legal. Gossiping about secrets constitutes no more and no less than a paradigm right of free speech. * The author is Chairman of the Department of Economics and Finance at the University of Central Arkansas, and owes a debt of gratitude to the Earhart Foundation for financial support. The usual caveats apply. I. See StevenShavellAnEconomicAnalysisofThreatsand TheirIllegality:Blackmail, Extortion andRobbery, 141 U. PA. L. REV. 1877 (1993). 2. See id.