ABSTRACT
The threat of shaming revelations has always been one of the most effective bases for blackmail, and there is no area in which this is more common than socially proscribed sexual behaviour. Adultery and homosexuality are probably the most common, with the occasional addition of deviant sexual practices of various kinds. The use of sex as a device for eliciting information or inducing compliance, even to the point of committing treason will probably always be with us. Secret accounts may be anecdotal and partial, the products of journalistic enthusiasm - but true for all that. Seduction, usually associated with women though this is by no means always the case - has always proved a good tool for inducing betrayal, especially among the unwary, as our brief case histories will show. Seduction can always mimic genuine interest and attraction, and so it is difficult to see how it can always be successfully avoided.
