Blackmail

For Decriminalization—The Libertarian Perspective

Libertarianism is the political, economic, and legal philosophy that maintains that crime should be defined so as to prohibit only threats or actual initiation of force against persons or their private property. Extortion clearly falls under this rubric, but blackmail does not. In the libertarian view, blackmail is a victimless crime, akin to other capitalist acts between consenting adults such as drug use, gambling, prostitution, pornography, homosexuality, and so forth. Strictly speaking, there are no victims in any of these cases, unless paternalism is seen as the basic political philosophy.

How can one argue that blackmail is a consensual commercial interaction? It appears that there is a perpetrator—the blackmailer, and a victim—the blackmailee. But, is the adulterous husband who is threatened by exposure really a victim? From his point of view, he may well be better off meeting the threat of the blackmailer than being exposed by a gossip who demands nothing from him to keep quiet. The gossip would expose the adulterer and the man might lose his wife and job. But with the blackmailer, the man has a chance of keeping his secret and his marriage and job by making a mutually beneficial deal in which the amount paid the blackmailer is worth less than the cost of being exposed.

For example, suppose that keeping his wife and employer in the dark is worth $16,000 and the blackmailer demands only $1,000 per year, which at an assumed interest rate of 10 percent translates into a present discounted value of $10,000. If the man agrees to the deal, he can earn an actual profit of $6,000 ($16,000 minus $10,000). The blackmailer also makes a profit, $10,000, if one assumes that the costs of transacting this deal were negligible. In contrast, with his secret on the lips of the gossip, the man loses something valued at $16,000.

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