Kidnapping is one of most reviled crimes out there. If you kidnap someone, it means that you have abducted them against their own will or their parents will. Kidnapping often leads to false imprisonment but is actually a separate crime. For example, if you kidnap someone but are caught almost immediately, you can only be charged with kidnapping, as opposed to someone who kidnaps a person and holds them captive for years. Despite the use of the word kid in kidnapping that implies that only children suffer from this crime, kidnapping is a problem for people of all ages. A kidnapper may take someone so he can later demand a ransom in exchange for freeing him or her. Unfortunately, this happens a lot in some countries.

A kidnapper may abduct someone and then sell them into slavery. Slaves are commonly acquired in this fashion. Many countries have a large illegal slave trade going on. Slave trade is also known as human trafficking, and is a serious problem in many countries ranging from Japan to Russia, and surprisingly enough, even in countries like the United States and England. Some slaves are forced to become domestic workers, while others are used as cheap or free labor. Many women and children are forced to become streetwalkers.

Some kidnappers abduct victims in order to perform a crime. For instance, a kidnapper may abduct children in order to sexually assault them. This can be seen in high profile cases such as the Jaycee Lee Dugard case, in which an eleven-year-old girl was abducted by a registered sex offender and imprisoned in his backyard for eighteen years. The kidnapper fathered two daughters by Jaycee. The first daughter was born when Jaycee was around thirteen years old.

The Elizabeth Smart kidnapping was another high profile case. The Smart girl was only fourteen when she was taken. The kidnapper took her because he wanted a second wife. If you are disgusted by these stories, be aware that these are relatively sanitized accounts of a much more gruesome reality.

Sometimes a parent will take a child that they do not have custody of. This is considered kidnapping as well. This type of kidnapping is connected to child custody disputes. A disgruntled parent without custody will take the child and run for it. Even though the child is usually not in danger, this type of kidnapping is regarded just as seriously in the legal system. A lot of the time, the parent does not have to take the child by force since the child will willingly leave with them. But this does not matter to the court. If the court took consent of minors seriously, then they would have no ability to prosecute people who have illegal sexual contact with minor consent.

This article is brought to you courtesy of Exclusively Criminal Defense, a Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney. We have experienced defense lawyers with over 20 years of experience.

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