KIDNAPPING: Essay Writing Topics

KIDNAPPING

Of all the crimes, kidnapping is the worst one. While it poses a great threat to the victim’s life, it also causes endless mental agony and sleepless nights to the others at home. Read this essay and follow the “Do’s and Don’ts” guidelines given in the next chapter so that the hostage can live on borrowed time!

Kidnapping and abduction have the same meaning. It is to carry off a person by force or by fraud. A criminal wielding a gun or knife, snatches a child or a boy or a girl in a shopping mall when he is about to be cornered. He uses the captive as a shield to protect himself until he gets into his get-away vehicle, or until he feels secure.

This kind of abduction is only momentary. To cite an example, a youth abducts his ladylove the way Pirthivraj had abducted Rani Samyukta for a compulsory marriage. In this case, there is little threat to the captive’s life.

The birth of this crime is dated back to 16th century, precisely in the year 1532.

The first ever ransom paid was, to secure the release of their chief, Atahvalda by the Ineas to the Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro in 1532-33 at Cajamarca, Peru, which constituted a hall full of gold and silver worth over 250 million dollars, according to modern money.

The greatest ransom ever paid was 6 billion dollars for the release of two business barons, (brothers), the Born of Argentina, to the left wing urban guerilla group, Montoneros on June 20, 1975.

Kidnapping can be classified into three groups: I. Miscellaneous, 2. Criminal and 3. Political. In any case, kidnapping is to be dealt with care and caution. Small mistake while negotiating with the kidnappers would endanger the life of the hostage in captivity.

  1. Miscellaneous kidnapping: Little children in a family are abducted. The objective is to milk a hefty ransom from the head of the family. It is an inside job, mostly by an ex-servant or the present servant, with or without the connivance of an outside accomplice. But all the same! There is a threat to the life of the abducted child, because he/she is the main eyewitness to the crime. At times, relatives are also doing this just to settle an old score with the family.
  2. Criminal Kidnapping: Any rich man or his children get abducted with a single aim of demanding ransom. It could be an inside job or an outsider who observes the family members and their routine before resorting to it. Of the three kinds, this one takes place often. This is a dangerous one as the kidnappers feels secure only when they wipe out the victim. So many school children were kidnapped and murdered so far.
  3. Political kidnapping: This is the most dangerous of all kidnappings. Here the victim’s life is always under threat. This type includes terrorists abducting a VIP to demand the release of their prisoners arrested earlier and is in fetter, or to extract money, too.