Intimidation

In English law. Every person commits a misdemeanor, punishable with a fine or imprisonment, who wrongfully uses violence to or intimidates any other person or his wife or children, with a view to compel him to abstain from doing or to do, any act which he has a legal right to do or abstain from doing. (St 38 & 39 Viet c. 86, § 7.) This enactment is chiefly directed against outrages by trades-unions. Sweet. There are similar statutes in many of the United States. See Payne v. Railroad Co., 13 Lea (Tenn.) 514, 49 Am. Rep. 666; Embry v. Com., 79 Ky. 441.

— Intimidation of voters. This, by statute in several of the states, is made a criminal offense. Under an early Pennsylvania act, it was held that, to constitute the offense of intimidation of voters, there must be a preconceived intention for the purpose of intimidating the officers or interrupting the election. Respublica v. Gibbs, 3 Yeates (Pa.) 429.