NCJ Number
247782
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2014 Pages: 221-236
Date Published
July 2014
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study examined newspaper stories on blackmail cases in the British newspaper "The Times" for the years 1960-2009 as a means of illustrating reporting and related public attention to this "marginal" crime in an era of social change.
Abstract
For the purpose of this study, blackmail is labeled a "marginal" crime because it is outside the purview of the main audiences for crime reporting, although it has serious consequences for its victims. "Blackmail" is defined as an effort to extort money from a victim by threatening to publicly reveal previously secret harmful information about the victim. The intent of this article is to determine the newspaper representation of and public interest in blackmail offenses during a period of social fragmentation in which crime was highly politicized within a framework of social order and delinquency. Overall, convictions for the crime of blackmail remained a continuing and steady presence across the period the period examined. The 33 cases of blackmail that received sustained reporting during this period involve cases of exposure of sexual activity by persons well-known to the public. This apparently excited prurient interest as well as concern about increasingly diverse sexual and social mores. Thus, the public's interest in these cases focused less on the blackmail than on the previously secret behavior of the victims that was so embarrassing or harmful to the victim when exposed that it attracted the blackmail. Although traditionally ignored by the public and the media, blackmail becomes significant when it targets behavior, particularly by public figures that challenge cultural norms in periods of social change. 2 figures, 1 table, and 14 references