Kidnapping
unauthorized taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will
Kidnapping is the illegal relocation (abduction) and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by fraud or deception. Kidnapping is distinguished from false imprisonment by the intentional movement of the victim to a different location.
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.
The public source identifies “Kidnapping” as unauthorized taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kidnapping, unauthorized and taking.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q318296. The Library of Congress control number is sh85072244. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kidnapping” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.