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Boston University School of Law

Series

1992

Morality

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Law

Norms Of Pride And Resistance: Psychology, Virtue, And The Blackmail Puzzle - Draft - 12-31-1992, Wendy J. Gordon Dec 1992

Norms Of Pride And Resistance: Psychology, Virtue, And The Blackmail Puzzle - Draft - 12-31-1992, Wendy J. Gordon

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Blackmail law can impact on the belief structures (moralisms) and behaviors of both the potential criminal and the potential victim; it also can affect the conceptual and value structures of lawyers and other societal onlookers. These issues surrounding what one might call the "symbolic" virtues of outlawing the act of blackmail may help to explain why blackmail law seems relatively unconcerned with the well-being of the victim.


Norms Of Pride And Resistance: Psychology, Virtue, And The Blackmail Puzzle - Draft 11-17-1992, Wendy J. Gordon Nov 1992

Norms Of Pride And Resistance: Psychology, Virtue, And The Blackmail Puzzle - Draft 11-17-1992, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Blackmail law can impact on the belief structures (moralisms) and behaviors of both the potential criminal and the potential victim; it also can affect the conceptual and value structures of lawyers and other societal onlookers. These issues surrounding what one might call the "symbolic" virtues of outlawing the act of blackmail may help to explain why blackmail law seems relatively unconcerned with the well-being of victims who would prefer to pay rather than prosecute their tormenters.


Blackmail And Moralisms: Victimhood And Aristotelian Pride - 1992, Wendy J. Gordon Aug 1992

Blackmail And Moralisms: Victimhood And Aristotelian Pride - 1992, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Of those persons who favor laws against blackmail, many take that position because of the moral nastiness of the blackmailing act ("pay me or I'll tell ...") These commentators are sometimes blind to where the self-interest of the so-called victim lies, for the victim often prefers paying for silence to having his secrets revealed. Much of the sophisticated literature on blackmail focuses on this gap in vision. Blackmail is called paradoxical because (among other things) it is a crime that a victim would often rather suffer than have discovered and prosecuted.