Blackmail

Blackmail is very common but we don't often hear about it. It is actually illegal if the person being blackmailed is threatened. One example of somebody who faced up to five years in prison due to blackmail was a man who blackmailed Cameron Diaz (pictured right). He took topless photos of her before she was famous and claimed she had signed a release form. He tried to scam her out of $1.7million. He was found guilty in court of forging Diaz's signature.

Could blackmail sometimes be a form of punishment? If so could it also be acceptable in some cases? If somebody does something badly wrong, for example if a man cheats on his wife and a friend of his wife finds out and starts blackmailing him to teach him a lesson, would this be ok? I guess it depends on what she is blackmailing him for.

It recently came out that Tiger Woods has had many affairs with many different women, also it is alledged that some of these women blackmailed him. Jaime Jungers (pictured left) claimed she had naked pictures of the sports star and would release them if anything was to happen to their relationship. This left Tiger with two options, stop the affair and be a laughing stock or stay with Jaime and leave his wife, kids and lose a family. You could say this was a punishment for him for doing what he did.

Another star who has been blackmailed is David Letterman, an American tv host. He had cheated on his wife on the set of his show, and the producer threatened to reveal this to his wife if Letterman didn't pay him. Click here for the full story.

So then, blackmailing is a crime if threatening behaviour is used and if you force the person to give you money for their silence, but maybe, if it is gone about in the right way, blackmailing could be a deserved punishment. People who do wrong need to be taught a lesson, but some people believe they can take the law into their own hands.