Kidnapping

People from Appenzell are complaining about the abuses (kidnapping in the background) and arbitrary decisions taken by the lords. From Luzerner Schilling written and illustrated by Diebold Schilling the Younger, 1513.

Kidnapping is the taking away of a person by force, deceit, threat and detaining that person against their will. There are many aims of kidnappers including the enslavement of their victims, marriage to their victims, or ransom. While the term “kidnapping” normally refers to the abduction of children, there are many sorts of “napping”. Kidnapping is still a great problem in the world today especially in connection to human trafficking. The first abduction was recorded in 1673.

Definition

Kidnapping is derived from kid = 'child' and nap (nab) = 'snatch,' first recorded in 1673. It was originally used as a term for the practice of stealing children for use as servants or laborers in the American colonies. It has come to mean any illegal capture or detention of a person or people against their will, regardless of age, as for ransom; since 1768 the term abduction was also used in this sense.

In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or asportation of a person against the person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority. This is often done for ransom or in furtherance of another crime. A majority of jurisdictions in the United States retain the "asportation" element for kidnapping, where the victim must be confined in a bounded area against their will and moved. Any amount of movement will suffice for the requirement, even if it is moving the abducted to a house next door.

Another case is when two countries are at war: enemy soldiers may be captured in another country and detained as prisoners of war under the law of the capturer's state, and suspected war criminals and those suspected of genocide or crimes against humanity may be arrested. Although the victims are usually called hostages (by their own country), this term also applies to legal hostage-taking, commonly practiced by governments in the past.

Kidnapping versus abduction

In the terminology of the common law in many jurisdictions (according to Black's Law Dictionary), the crime of kidnapping is labelled abduction when the victim is a woman. In modern usage, kidnapping or abduction of a child is often called child stealing, particularly when done not to collect a ransom, but rather with the intention of keeping the child permanently (often in a case where the child's parents are divorced or legally separated, whereupon the parent who does not have legal custody will commit the act; then also known as "child napping"). The word "kidnapping" was originally "kid nabbing," in other words slang for "child stealing," but is no longer restricted to the case of a child victim.

Child abduction / child stealing can refer to children being taken away without their parents' consent, but with the child's consent.

Types

Bride kidnapping

Bride kidnapping is a term often applied more loosely, to include any bride physically 'abducted' against the will of her parents, even if she is willing to marry the 'abductor'. It still is traditional amongst certain nomadic peoples of Central Asia. It has seen resurgence in Kyrgystan since the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent erosion of women's rights.

Child abduction

Child abduction is the abduction or kidnapping of a child (or baby) by an older person.

Several distinct forms of child abduction exist:

• A stranger removes a child for criminal or mischievous purposes
• A stranger removes a child (usually a baby) to bring up as that person's own child.
• A parent removes or retains a child from the other parent's care (often in the course of or after divorce proceedings).

While cases have been reported from antiquity, this phenomenon has taken on greater awareness as a result of movies and television series depictions of the premise of people who remove children from strangers to bring up as their own often after the death of their own child.

Removal by stranger

Lindbergh on the witness stand

Perhaps the most feared (although not the most common) kind of abduction is removal by a stranger. The stereotypical version of stranger abduction is the classic form of "kidnapping," exemplified by the Lindbergh kidnapping which involved the abduction and murder of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Junior, the toddler son of world famous aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, in 1932. In the standard scenario, the child is detained, transported some distance, held for ransom or with intent to keep the child permanently. In unfortunate cases, such as the Lindbergh case, the child suffers death at the hands of the kidnappers.

These instances are, however, rare. A study commissioned by the US Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention found that there were only approximately 115 stereotypical stranger abductions in 1999.

Removal by stranger to raise as own

A very small number of abductions result from (typically) women who kidnap babies (or other young children) to bring up as their own. These women are often unable to have children of their own and seek to satisfy their unmet psychological need by abducting a child rather than by adopting. The crime is often premeditated, with the woman often simulating pregnancy to reduce suspicion when a baby suddenly appears in the household.

Parental child abduction

By far the most common kind of child abduction is parental child abduction and often occurs when the parents separate or begin divorce proceedings. A parent may remove or retain the child from the other seeking to gain an advantage in expected or pending child-custody proceedings or because that parent fears losing the child in those expected or pending child-custody proceedings; a parent may refuse to return a child at the end of an access visit or may flee with the child to prevent an access visit. Parental child abductions may be within the same city, within the state region or within the same country, or may be international. Studies performed for the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported that in 1999, 53% percent of family abducted children were gone less than one week, and 21% were gone one month or more.

Depending on the laws of the state and country in which the parental abduction occurs, this may or may not constitute a criminal offence. For example, removal of a child from the UK for a period of 28 days or more without the permission of the other parent (or person with parental responsibility), is a criminal offence. Many US States have criminalized interstate child abduction and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) has undertaken a project to draft a uniform state law dealing with parental abduction.

Cults

Kidnapping can also take place in the case of deprogramming, a now rare practice to convince someone to give up his commitment to a new religious movement, called a cult or sect by critics, that the deprogrammer considers harmful.

Stockholm syndrome

Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe the relationship a hostage can build with their kidnapper. It is a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which the hostage has been placed. Stockholm syndrome is also sometimes discussed in reference to other situations with similar tensions, such as battered person syndrome, rape cases, child abuse cases, and bride kidnapping.

A famous case involved millionaire heiress Patty Hearst, granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, who was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. After two months in captivity, she actively took part in a robbery they were orchestrating. Her unsuccessful legal defense was that she suffered from Stockholm syndrome and was coerced into aiding the SLA. She was convicted and imprisoned for her actions in the robbery. Her seven-year prison term was eventually commuted by President Jimmy Carter, and Hearst was released from prison on February 1, 1979, having served only twenty-two months. She was granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001.

Tiger kidnapping

Tiger kidnapping is taking an innocent hostage to make a loved one or associate of the victim do something, for example a child is taken hostage to force the shopkeeper to open the safe; the term originates from the usually long preceding observation, like a tiger does on the prowl.

According to a 2003 Domestic Violence Report in Colorado, out of a survey of 189 incidents, most people (usually white females) are taken from their homes or residence by a present or former spouse or significant other. They are usually taken by force, not by weapons, and usually the victims are not injured when they are let free or rescued.

Kidnapping around the world

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is an international treaty and legal mechanism to recover children abducted to another country by one parent or family member. The United States ratified this treaty in 1988. Serious problems can arise when parental abduction results in moving a child, with a parent, across an international border. The laws of the countries are different, and a foreign child custody order may not be recognized.

Kidnapping for ransom is almost nonexistent in the United States of America today, due in great part to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's aggressive stance toward kidnapping. The Bureau made kidnap for ransom a special priority, and continues to do so today. There are two main deterrents against kidnapping in the United States: the extreme logistical challenges involved in exchanging the money for the victim and harsh punishment. Convicted kidnappers can expect to face life imprisonment or death penalty if convicted. In many states kidnapping is the only capital crime other than murder. One notorious failed example of kidnap for ransom was the Chowchilla bus kidnapping, in which 26 children in California were abducted with the intention of bringing in a $5 million ransom.

In the past, and presently in some parts of the world, (such as southern Sudan), kidnapping is a common means used to obtain slaves.

The Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel paramilitary group operating mainly in northern Uganda, is notorious for its abductions of children for use as child soldiers or sex slaves. According to the Sudan Tribune, as of 2005, more than 20,000 children have been kidnapped by the LRA.

Bride kidnapping, although considered a sex crime by many, is still practiced in such places as Central Asia, the Caucasus region, parts of Africa, and Southeast Asia. The practice is prevalent in farming societies where daughters are valued for their potential labor output and therefore not encouraged to marry young because of the loss of output it represents to their families. Men, on the other hand, are afforded greater social status if they marry young, which creates a contentious atmosphere. The level of violence used in these kidnappings varies. Some are conducted with the permission of the bride who seek the opportunity to have a family but some are brutal and involve rape.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Feder, Lynette. Women and Domestic Violence: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Haworth Press (1999). ISBN 0789006677
• Greiff, Geoffrey. When Parents Kidnap. Free Press (1992). ISBN 0029129753
• Smith, Arthur. Kidnap City: Cold War Berlin. Greenwood Press (2002). ISBN 0313323615

External Links

• Kyrgyz bride kidnap (current)
• Kyrgyzstan:The Kidnapped Bride Retrieved July 13, 2007.
• Sudanese slave trade (current): Slave by Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis ISBN 1-58648-212-2
• Save the Children
• Insight News documentary: China's Kidnapped Wives
• Court TV's - Criminal Psychology of child abduction
• BBC News report: West Africa's child slave trade, 6 August, 1999.

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