kidnapping
A kidnapping is a criminal act in which one or more people are dragged or detained under criminal coercion to an involuntary place of residence. Ransom money is often demanded from the kidnappers for their release . If the kidnapping victim is a child, one speaks of child abduction . The English equivalent of kidnapping originally refers to this special case, but has been given a generalized extension of meaning . The kidnapped persons group is in an airplane, it is called hijacking .
Offense
Legal delimitation
In the German criminal jurisprudence are under the umbrella term kidnapping offenses the offenses trafficking , kidnapping , kidnapping for extortion , hostage-taking , abduction of minors and abduction as special cases of the general offense of false imprisonment summarized.
The earlier offense of kidnapping with and against the will of the abductee , in which the will of the male perpetrator had to be directed towards extramarital sexual acts on the abducted woman, has been repealed in the course of the reform of the offenses against sexual self-determination . The kidnapping against the will of the kidnapped person can now be punished as (attempted) sexual coercion or rape .
(For information on the "robbery of women", which was widespread in historical times, see bride robbery ; for information on "robbery of women" as an obstacle to marriage under canon law, see Raptio .)
Criminological demarcation
The criminological demarcation between kidnapping, hostage-taking and kidnapping is not always uniform and clear. In any case, kidnapping is used when the victim is taken to a hiding place or to a place of residence known only to the perpetrators. The main goal of kidnapping is to extort a ransom . Other goals can be to enforce political demands or the release of prisoners. There are also combinations of these and similar purposes. The hallmark of hostage-taking, on the other hand, would be that the hostage-takers hold the victim at a known location and use them, for example, to blackmail the criminals to move freely or to cover the escape route. A characteristic can also be that the people taken hostage are more or less accidentally victims of deprivation of liberty (e.g. because they are at the scene of a bank robbery ), while kidnapping victims were specifically selected by the perpetrators before the crime. These delimitations are no longer applicable to aircraft or ship hijackings. A kidnapping is often referred to when the kidnapping is carried out for the purpose of making use of the abilities and characteristics of the kidnapped, i.e. the kidnapping victims, for example, are to be abused as forced laborers or sex slaves and deprived of their freedom in the long term.
Consequences of sacrifice
Beyond the pure deprivation of liberty, victims of kidnapping are usually in danger of being injured or killed, and their life and limb are threatened accordingly. The psychological consequences of this traumatic experience can also be serious. A prolonged kidnapping or hostage-taking can lead to the victim and the perpetrator becoming emotionally closer due to the mutual predicament. This effect is known as Stockholm Syndrome because it was first described in connection with a hostage-taking in a bank in Stockholm.
Books, films, theater
- 1782: The Abduction from the Seraglio , Opera
- 1986: The incredible kidnapping of crazy Mrs. Stone , americ. Film comedy with the actors Bette Midler and Danny DeVito
- 1989: Steven - The Abduction , American film about the kidnapping of Steven Stayner
- 1991: The Silence of the Lambs , americ. Thriller about a human skinning killer starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins
- 1993: The Abduction of Agata , Polish film, satirical processing of an authentic case
- 1996: Bounty - One Will Pay , US-American. Feature film with the actors Mel Gibson and Rene Russo
- 1997: Death game , docu-drama about the hijacking of the Lufthansa airplane Landshut by Palestinian terrorists
- 2001: The dance with the devil - The kidnapping of Richard Oetker , German TV crime thriller about the kidnapping of Richard Oetker
- 2006: Alpha Dog - Fatal Friendships , loosely based on actual events surrounding Jesse James Hollywood in August 2000 in Los Angeles
- 2008: 96 Hours French action thriller with Liam Neeson
- 2009: Stop the world , German TV film about the kidnapping of Felix Wille
- 2009: Without a Trace - The Kidnapping of Alice Creed , British thriller
- 2013: 3096 days , German film drama
- 2016: Trapped , 8-part television documentary (United States 2016)
See also
- List of kidnappings in Germany
- Alerte-Enlèvement
- Alien abduction
- Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction
- Committee to Abolish the Abduction of Women and Children
Individual evidence