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| Getting sex by threat of prosecution is extortion (or blackmail in Wyoming) by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 05/12/2012, 10:22am PDT | ||||
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Horrible Gelatinous Blob wrote: Uh, wrong. Let's take Maryland's extortion statute: § 3-701. Extortion generally (a) Scope of section. -- This section does not apply to legitimate efforts by employees or their representatives to obtain certain wages, hours, or working conditions. (b) Obtaining or attempting to obtain property prohibited. -- A person may not obtain, attempt to obtain, or conspire to obtain money, property, labor, services, or anything of value from another person with the person's consent, if the consent is induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened: (1) force or violence; (2) economic injury; or (3) destruction, concealment, removal, confiscation, or possession of any immigration or government identification document with intent to harm the immigration status of another person. His action is the obtaining of labor or services - sex from her - or something of value - sex from her - through the threat of economic injury, e.g. making it so she cannot go on to college. Or this one: § 3-705. Extortion by verbal threat (a) Prohibited. -- A person, with the intent to unlawfully extort money, property, labor, services, or anything of value from another, may not verbally threaten to: (1) accuse any person of a crime or of anything that, if true, would bring the person into contempt or disrepute; or (2) (i) cause physical injury to a person; (ii) inflict emotional distress on a person; (iii) cause economic damage to a person; or (iv) cause damage to the property of a person. (b) Penalty. -- A person who violates this section is guilty of a felony and on conviction is subject to imprisonment not exceeding 10 years or a fine not exceeding $ 10,000 or both. Clearly he unlawfully extorted services by threatening to accuse her of a crime. Now whether the state she was in has a similar statute is another matter. Therefore it is arguable that getting her to allow him to have sex was the use of force - the commission of a crime, e.g. extortion - and thus he can be charged with both rape by force - the force being the crime of extortion - and the crime of extortion. I'll pick a couple more at random. Iowa. Iowa Code 711.4 Extortion . A person commits extortion if the person does any of the following with the purpose of obtaining for oneself or another anything of value, tangible or intangible, including labor or services: 1. Threatens to inflict physical injury on some person, or to commit any public offense. 2. Threatens to accuse another of a public offense. 3. Threatens to expose any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule. 4. Threatens to harm the credit or business or professional reputation of any person. 5. Threatens to take or withhold action as a public officer or employee, or to cause some public official or employee to take or withhold action. 6. Threatens to testify or provide information or to withhold testimony or information with respect to another's legal claim or defense. 7. Threatens to wrongfully injure the property of another. It is a defense to a charge of extortion that the person making a threat other than a threat to commit a public offense, reasonably believed that the person had a right to make such threats in order to recover property, or to receive compensation for property or services, or to recover a debt to which the person has a good faith claim. Extortion is a class "D" felony. Therefore the threat to turn them in to INS - or not turn them in if sex is given - violates Item 2. Obtaining labor or services by threat of accusation of a public offense. Let's pick another state. Wyoming. § 6-2-402. Blackmail; aggravated blackmail; penalties. (a) A person commits blackmail if, with the intent to obtain property of another or to compel action or inaction by any person against his will, the person: (i) Threatens bodily injury or injury to the property of another person; or (ii) Accuses or threatens to accuse a person of a crime or immoral conduct which would tend to degrade or disgrace the person or subject him to the ridicule or contempt of society. (b) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, blackmail is a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than ten (10) years. So it's blackmail rather than extortion in Wyoming. Interesting. But it's still a crime to threaten to turn someone in unless they have sex with you ("compelled action"). Horrible Gelatinous Blob wrote: True, but you can't threaten to turn someone in unless they give you something. That is the definition of extortion. Horrible Gelatinous Blob wrote: Except that I got it right on the extortion issue. A threat to turn someone in for a crime if they don't have sex with you is a demand for action by someone on threat of criminal prosecution (and/or deportation). Horrible Gelatinous Blob wrote: And it still represents the crime of extortion. Any attempt to get anything of value - and I think getting sexual favors are "something of value" - in exchange for not doing something such as reporting them, is extortion. There is no way you can demand sex from someone in which there is any implication of reporting them for a crime without tripping over the definition of extortion. Horrible Gelatinous Blob wrote: Where is the threat? If she has sex with him because of what she imagines might happen, is not the same thing as something that he personally says. If he asks her for sex, and makes no threat at all, he hasn't done anything wrong. Just because she thinks he would kick her out does not mean he would. Maybe he would, but absent some evidence he made some kind of threat it's presumed the sex is consensual. Otherwise any man who asked a woman to go to bed with him would be liable for rape, because there's always the possibility the guy could force her, or do something to her, if she didn't. Horrible Gelatinous Blob wrote: I don't like this one but I'll say no. There is no threat. She may not like the idea but she does have a choice. However, it might cross the line into extortion. If the guy is stupid enough to admit it to a cop, I suppose. However, there's no threat to property or to her personally. Horrible Gelatinous Blob wrote:And here, clearly as the laws of more than three states prove, you're wrong. Getting labor, action or inaction through threat of criminal prosecution is extortion (or blackmail in Wyoming). |
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