the.com/kidnapping
the crime that turned children into currency and parents into willing bank robbers
means The crime of seizing and carrying off a person by force or deception, typically to extort ransom or for some other unlawful purpose.
from A 17th-century English compound of 'kid' (a slang term for a child, borrowed from the young of a goat) and 'nap' (a variant of 'nab,' meaning to snatch or grab). It first described the snatching of children and young people to be shipped off as servants and laborers to the American colonies — only later did the word stretch to cover the abduction of anyone, of any age.
- word origin
- From kid plus nabbing — literally stolen children in 1600s slang
- colonial pipeline
- Kidnapped Britons were shipped to American colonies as labor
- famous case
- Lindbergh baby's 1932 abduction made it a federal crime
- counterintuitive risk
- Most child abductions are by family, not strangers
- insurance exists
- Kidnap and ransom policies are a real corporate product
lindbergh baby kidnapping — charles lindbergh's 20-month-old son taken in new jersey, 1932; bruno hauptmann executed
patty hearst kidnapping — heiress taken by symbionese liberation army in san francisco, 1974; later joined captors
natascha kampusch case — austrian girl held captive in basement for 8 years by wolfgang přiklopil, 1998–2006
jaycee dugard kidnapping — california girl abducted aged 11, held 18 years in backyard by phillip garrido