Criminal coercion is intending to compel another person to action or inaction by threatening to commit a crime, accusing someone of a crime, exposing a secret whether true or false in order to subject another to hatred, contempt, or ridicule or in order to impair their credit or business. Public servant who take or withhold official action for the same purposes are also guilty of blackmail. Modern criminal codes have tended to expand the crime of extortion to include what is generally regarded as blackmail, however the crime is named.