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Kidnapping

Unlawful abduction of someone and holding them captive

  • 12 min read
  • 3 chapters
Kidnapping
James Tissot · Public domain

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Kidnapping may be done to demand a ransom in exchange for releasing the victim, or for other illegal purposes. Kidnapping can be accompanied by bodily injury, which in some jurisdictions elevates the crime to aggravated kidnapping.

Child abduction may be a distinct crime, depending on jurisdiction.

Motives

Kidnapping can occur for a variety of reasons, with motivations for the crime varying particularly based on the perpetrator.

Ransom

The kidnapping of a person, most often an adult, for ransom is a common motivation behind kidnapping. This method is primarily utilized by larger organizations, such as criminal gangs, terrorist organizations, or insurgent groups. Typically this is done for financial incentive, with sums of money varying depending on the victim or the method of kidnapping.

Mexican gangs are estimated to have made up to $250 million in kidnappings from Central American migrants.

According to a 2022 study by political scientist Danielle Gilbert, armed groups in Colombia engage in ransom kidnappings as a way to maintain the armed groups' local systems of taxation. The groups resort to ransom kidnappings to punish tax evasion and incentivize inhabitants not to shirk. A 2024 study argued that insurgent groups are more likely to engage in kidnappings "under two conditions: to generate support and reinstate bargaining capacity when organizations suffer military losses on the battlefield and to enforce loyalties and display strength when organizations face violent competition from other non-state actors."

Kidnapping has been identified as one source by which terrorist organizations have been known to obtain funding.

Express kidnapping is a method of abduction used in some countries, mainly from Latin America, where a small ransom, that a company or family can easily pay, is demanded. Express kidnapping is also used for an immediate ransom in which the victim is taken to an ATM and forced to give the captor money.

Tiger kidnapping occurs when a person is kidnapped, and the captor forces them to commit a crime such as robbery or murder. The victim is held hostage until the captor's demands are met. The term originates from the usually long preceding observation, like a tiger does when stalking prey. This is a method which has been used by the Real Irish Republican Army and the Continuity Irish Republican Army.

Virtual kidnapping is a unique form of kidnapping that has risen in recent years. Unlike previous forms of kidnapping, virtual kidnapping does not actually involve a victim of any kind. The scam involves a process of calling numerous people on the phone and making them believe the caller has a victim's loved one, such as a child, in order to gain a quick ransom from the victim. Previously these calls used to affect Spanish speaking communities in large cities, such as Los Angeles or Houston. Until around 2015 when the calls started to be directed to English speakers as well. Around 80 victims were identified as falling for this scam, with losses ranging close to $100,000. While most perpetrators behind this scam can be linked back to Mexico, one instance occurred in Houston, Texas. Yanette Rodriguez Acosta was found guilty of accosting victims for large sums of money, which she would pick up at a set drop off of point. She was sentenced to seven years in prison, with an additional three years of supervision following her release.

In the past, and presently in some parts of the world (such as southern Sudan), kidnapping is a common means used to obtain slaves and money through ransom. In the 19th century, kidnapping in the form of shanghaiing (or "pressganging") men supplied merchant ships with sailors, whom the law considered unfree labour.

Pirates

Kidnapping on the high seas in connection with piracy has been increasing. It was reported that 661 crewmembers were taken hostage and 12 kidnapped in the first nine months of 2009. The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre recorded that 141 crew members were taken hostage and 83 were kidnapped in 2018.

Other

Other motivations behind kidnapping include the kidnap of a person for sexual assault purposes, or situations of domestic violence. For example, the 2003 Domestic Violence Report in Colorado shows in most instances of domestic violence people, most typically white females, will be taken from their residence by a present or former spouse or significant other. Often they will be taken by force, not with a weapon, and victims will be freed without injury to their person.

Bride kidnapping is a term often applied loosely, to include any bride "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 a resurgence in Kyrgyzstan since the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent erosion of women's rights.

Kidnapping has sometimes been used by the family and friends of a cult member as a method to remove them from the cult and begin a deprogramming process to change their allegiance away from the group.

Motivations for kidnapping cannot always be easily defined. During the 1990s and afterward, for example, the New York divorce coercion gang was involved in a sting of kidnappings. They would take Jewish husbands from their homes in New York and New Jersey and torture them in order for them to grant gittin, or religious divorces, to their wives. The gang is notorious for crimes of this nature. They were later apprehended for their crimes on 9 October 2013, in connection with a foiled kidnapping plot.

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