Stephen Morewitz - Kidnapping and Violence: New Research and Clinical Perspectives

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature.

The registered company address is: 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, U.S.A.

The practice of abducting individuals has existed since the dawn of civilization. For example, in ancient Rome and Greece, persons were captured during wars and then used as slaves. The term, kidnapping, comes from the word, kid, meaning child and nap (nab) meaning snatch ( Wikipedia , Kidnapping, no date). This term dates back to 1673 and was originally employed to describe the practice of stealing children for use as servants or laborers in the American colonies. The term, abduction, has also been used to denote this phenomenon since 1768. In the nineteenth century, the term, shanghaiing was employed to show how men were kidnapped in order to serve as unwilling labor on board merchant ships, where the ships captain was king. At the same time, the term, press ganging, was used to describe the conscription of civilians into the military, especially the British Navy, beginning in 1664 and continuing until the early nineteenth century (Wikipedia, Impressment, no date).

Kidnapping or abduction now refers to any illegal capture or detention of an individual or people against their will, regardless of age. It is frequently committed to obtain a ransom or to achieve other criminal goals, such as rape, slavery, and sex trafficking.

Since the Lindbergh kidnapping in 1932, highly publicized kidnappings and homicides have led to greater public recognition of the phenomenon as a social problem. Kidnapping has evolved into a number of different types, including infant and child abductions, political kidnappings, sex trafficking, bride abductions, and international and domestic parental (or family) kidnappings. In many instances, individuals are missing and are presumed to be the victims of foul play, including kidnapping and homicide.

With the increased public awareness of kidnapping as a social problem have come new laws and community/organizational responses to cope with this complex problem. For example, the Amber Alert system was initiated to improve the speed at which community residents and law enforcement personnel respond to kidnappings in the community.

This book analyzes kidnapping in three general ways. First, kidnapping, including the threat of kidnapping, reflects a breakdown in the mechanisms of social control in society. At the level of interpersonal relations, the weakening of social control processes allows kidnappers to function in different situations and for diverse motives. This book will address such questions as: What are the conditions under which kidnappers can evade social control by abducting or threatening to abduct another person? What factors trigger the response of social control mechanisms to kidnappers or attempted kidnappers? How effective are the institutional responses to abductions?

Second, governments and paramilitary and terrorist groups also employ kidnappings as part of their foreign and domestic policy. This analysis will evaluate why and under what conditions governments, paramilitary, and terrorist groups decide to abduct individuals and groups. Emphasis will be on how individuals, groups, and governments employ abductions to achieve their social, cultural, religious, and political objectives.

Third, certain cultural traditions foster abductions. This analysis will examine how cultural traditions in different societies emerge to foster behaviors such as bride abductions. Moreover, this book assesses the extent to which social change modifies these cultural patterns.

In several of the chapters, new research findings from the following five databases are used: (1) Stalking and Violence Project (SVP); (2) Missing Persons Project (MMP); (3) Ransom Kidnappings Project (RKP); (4) Aircraft Hijackings Project (AHP); and (5) Kidnapping Hoaxes Project (KHP). Results from these research projects are used to explore the characteristics of victims and suspects, the patterns of abductions, and the process of regulating suspects.

In Chap. new patterns of partner kidnapping, a little known social phenomenon, are investigated.

Chapter discusses bride abduction and focuses on the ways in which the cultural traditions of bride kidnapping become normative.

In Chap. the risk factors for family abductions in the United States are presented. This chapter also analyzes legal responses to family abductions and their psychosocial impact on children and their families.

International family kidnappings are discussed in Chap.. This analysis focuses on the risk factors for international family abductions and legal responses to this form of abduction.

The remaining ten chapters include new research on different forms of kidnappings, including ransom kidnapping and aircraft hijacking. In addition, this book presents data on kidnapping hoaxes, a little known phenomenon.