Kidnapping

 In criminal law, kidnapping is the abduction and restraint by force or unlawful transportation of a person usually in order to hold them captive against their will. This may be done with a demand for ransom in exchange for releasing them from concealment, or for other illegal purposes. Kidnapping can be accompanied by bodily injury which elevates the crime to aggravated kidnapping. 

 Hostage taking, and Kidnapping are considered as terrorizing crimes in world. It occurs when a person is abducted and taken from one place to another against their will, or a situation in which a person is confined to a controlled space without the confinement being from a legal authority. Consequently, when the transportation or confinement of the person is done for an unlawful purpose, such as for ransom or for the purpose of committing another crime, the act becomes criminal: For example, kidnapping a bank officer’s family in order to gain assistance in robbing a bank. Or abducting and eloping with a girl for the purpose of initializing or finalizing sexual or marriage plans against the wish of the parents or guardian, especially an underage. 

 Kidnapping can be defined as the act of seizing and detaining or carrying away a person by unlawful force or by fraud, and often with a demand for ransom. It involves taking a person from their family forcefully without their consent with the motive of holding the person as a hostage and earning a profit from their family. In this regard, kidnapping could be for a number of reasons such as getting monetary reward, or getting some sort of benefits from the person. It is usually done for a motive or for oppressive intentions, the most common of which is extorting money from the family of the victim in form of ransom for freedom and continual living. Based on these discrepancies one finds in kidnapping, similar terms like hostage-taking, abduction, hijacking, capturing, etc. 

 
There are various types of kidnapping which are as follows:-

Basic Kidnapping: This is the commonest type of kidnapping. It is accomplished in most parts of the world with minimal preparation, with relative low risk of failure. In this typology, abductors usually target local businessmen or their family members; the affluent of the society who they consider as being ‘well-off’, without having sufficient resources to spend a great deal of money on security precautions. The kidnapper’s goal is a fast, easy payoff. Generally, the ransoms requested are relatively easy for the victim’s family or company to obtain. 

 Express Kidnapping: In this form of kidnapping, the victim is abducted, then forced to withdraw their own ransom from a bank or ATM. If all goes well, the victim is released afterwards, generally after having been relieved of all valuables on their person (and occasionally in their residence). This type of kidnapping is popular in urban areas, due to the prolific ATMs. In some cases, this will develop into a standard kidnapping, with further ransom demanded of the family or employer. In other cases, the abducted victim is held overnight, to get around a one-day withdrawal limit.  

 Political Kidnapping: This involves any abduction incident conducted to extort political concessions from governments or security forces. As monetary ransom is no longer enough, it is more difficult to negotiate abducted victim’s freedom as in many cases the political concessions or demands cannot be met by the involved government, thereby putting the victim’s life at greater risk. 

 Tiger Kidnapping: This abduction model involves a hostage-taking in order to force the victim to participate in a robbery. The robberies have become known as tiger kidnappings because the raiders stalk their prey to study their movements before striking.  

 Bride Kidnapping: This is a form of abduction for forced-marriage. It is a form of cultural antic to force a damsel to marriage. In this act, the groom-to-be kidnaps his bride. In many cases the would-be couple has never met until the day of the abduction. This way of marriage is practiced in the Asia. In many cases, the bride is raped in order to convince her to stay with her husband, as in many traditional cultures the loss of virginity is harshly judged. In some cultures a bride price is customary as compensation by the abductor to his victim’s family. 

 Virtual Kidnapping: This is more of a scam than an actual kidnapping. The perpetrators will wait until their target is unreachable (visiting an area with no cellular coverage, for example), then will contact the target’s family or company, claiming they have kidnapped the person and demanding an immediate ransom. The target will eventually return; unaware that anything untoward has occurred. Due to the need for haste, the ransoms demanded are generally relatively modest. Another common technique is to call the target pretending to be a cellular phone company representative, and ask them to turn off their phone for a short while for a technical reason, during which the virtual kidnapping is conducted.  

 High Net-Worth Individual Kidnapping: This is the most cinematically popular form of kidnapping. Generally, the intended target is studied for some time prior to the actual abduction, allowing the perpetrators to gather intelligence on security procedures and personal habits. After the victim has been taken, their family or employer is contacted to pay ransom for the victim’s freedom. A negotiation process occurs in this process, as most of these incidents are perpetrated by experienced kidnapping gangs. The victim is by and large released if ransom is paid. As highnet-worth folks become more and more security-conscious, this type of kidnapping has been on the decline in recent years, in favour of less involved kidnappings with smaller but easier to obtain payoffs.