The criminal offense of sextortion is a form of blackmail or extortion and is committed when a person threatens to publish private nude, pornographic, or explicit photos, videos, or images of another person’s body or sexual activity unless the person provides something of value—such as money, sexual activity, more sexual images, or the performance of sexual acts (often online using webcams).

Sextortion laws vary from state to state and are sometimes part of a state’s laws regarding revenge pornography, blackmail, extortion, bribery, or cyberstalking and are prosecuted under those or other criminal offenses rather than as a specific offense called sextortion. These laws are generally located in a state’s statutes—often in the penal or criminal code—and are sometimes titled with descriptive names such as The Unlawful Disclosure or Promotion of Intimate Visual Material.

In New Jersey, sextortion is not recognized as a distinct criminal offense under a specific statute titled 'sextortion.' However, individuals who engage in sextortion can be prosecuted under various existing New Jersey laws. These laws include those against cyber harassment (N.J.S.A. 2C:33-4.1), which criminalizes the act of threatening to communicate, or communicating, any lewd, indecent, or obscene material to or about anyone with the intent to emotionally harm or place that person in fear of physical or emotional harm. Additionally, New Jersey's invasion of privacy laws (N.J.S.A. 2C:14-9) make it illegal to disclose any photographs, films, videotapes, or other reproductions of the image of another person whose intimate parts are exposed without that person's consent. This can apply to situations where private images are used as leverage in sextortion. Furthermore, the state's laws on theft by extortion (N.J.S.A. 2C:20-5) could also be used to prosecute someone who threatens to release explicit images unless they receive something of value. An attorney can provide more specific guidance on how these laws might apply in a given sextortion case.