Robbery and Extortion, Essay Example

It is virtually impossible to determine whether robbery or extortion is inherently more damaging to a victim, because crimes are necessarily acts wherein degree defines them.  For example,  a single act of robbery that takes from a business all its funds may effectively ruin the victim’s business and livelihood, and impact as well on employees of that business.   Conversely, a lengthy but modest practice of extortion may be conducted with no dire consequences to the victim, either emotionally or financially.

This reality notwithstanding, extortion is typically far more damaging to the victim because extortion is a more willful, and usually malicious, crime. Robbery can be triggered by a variety of motives beyond greed and, as noted, it may have devastating consequences, but it is commonly an isolated and impersonal crime. It is also, more often than not, an isolated event.

Extortion, on the other hand, invariably relies on a systematic and ongoing abuse. Technically, it is “the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear” (Natarajan, 2010,  p. 261). The phrase, “with his consent”, most particularly defines the difference between robbery and extortion, for the latter serves to make the victim complicit in the crime. In either event, the victim is still very much just that, yet extortion differs in that it typically has an agenda behind it absent from most robberies.

Moreover, the two crimes, while essentially linked by avarice, are distinct because extortion frequently occurs on a scale far more extensive than that of robbery. Extortion is the driving agent behind most, if not all, organized crime, as various forms of intimidation serve to assure the compliance of the victims. Today, in fact, and despite modern law enforcement techniques, the construction industry is largely marked by extortionist practices going to racketeering, set in motion through the sabotage of competition, bribery, and direct threats of physical violence (Shanty, Mishra, 2008,  p. 200). This presents a scope of victimization well beyond that of common robbery, both in impact, numbers of potential victims, and, again, duration.   Given, then, this expansive component to extortion, it can be reasonably argued that it is a more damaging crime than robbery.

References

Natarajan, M. (2010.)  International Crime and Justice.  New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Shanty, F., & Mishra, P. P.  (2008.) Organized Crime: From Trafficking to Terrorism, Volume I. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC.