Extortion is a criminal offense, which occurs when a person obtains money, behaviour, or other goods and/or services from another by wrongfully threatening or inflicting harm to his person, reputation, or property. Euphemistically, refraining from doing harm is sometimes called protection. Common stereotype of a criminal A crime in a broad sense is an act that violates a political or moral law. ... A euphemism is a word or phrase used in place of a term that originally could not be spoken aloud (see taboo) or, by extension, terms which they consider to be disagreeable or offensive. ...

Blackmail is one kind of extortion -- specifically, extortion by threatening another's reputation with the disclosure of incriminating statements (true or false) about him. Even if it is not criminal to disclose the information, it constitutes extortion to demand money or other consideration not to disclose it. [1] (http://www.lectlaw.com/def/b105.htm) Blackmail is threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a monetary demand is met. ...

Extortion is distinguished from robbery. In robbery, the offender steals goods from the victim whilst threatening him with force. In extortion, the victim willingly turns the goods over to avoid a threatened violence or other harm.

The term extortion is often used metaphorically to refer to usury or to price-gouging, though neither is legally considered extortion. Some Libertarians and Objectivists have described taxation as a form of "extortion". Usury (from the Latin usus meaning used) was defined originally as charging a fee for the use of money. ... This article deals with the libertarianism as defined in America and several other nations. ... Objectivism is opposed to subjectivism and may mean: Metaphysical objectivism The philosophy of Ayn Rand, Objectivist philosophy The poetry of the Objectivist poets Moral objectivism, Objective morality This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

United State Federal Definition of Extortion is: The term "extortion" means the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right.

See Also

• Coercion by threat
• federal crime
• tax evasion

A threat is an unwanted (deliberate or accidental) event that may result in harm to an asset. ... In the United States, a federal crime or federal offence is a crime that is either made illegal by U.S. federal legislation or a crime that occurs on U.S. federal property. ... This article contrasts tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax resistance and tax mitigation. ...

External Links

• the Federal Bureau of Investigation (http://www.fbi.gov)