Blackmail

First Published in 1975 Blackmail: Publicity and Secrecy in Everyday Life examines why blackmail is often taken more seriously than murder and why it is widely considered as a serious social threat. Both fictional and real-life situations are used to explore the kinds of social situation in which various individuals become vulnerable to blackmail. In isolating the key ingredients of reputational blackmail in Britain over the last hundred years, this book is not preoccupied with threats to accuse someone of a major criminal offence such as murder or armed robbery, but rather with those cases where the penalties of discovery are less clear-cut and where public reaction may be much more ambivalent. Mike Hepworth focuses attention on the way blackmail is stigmatized in criminological and other literature and the possible validity of the stereotype in the light of alternative interpretations. This book is an interesting read for scholars and researchers of criminology and sociology.