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This study explores how hostages are murdered during a kidnapping for ransom. A multi-dimensional scaling procedure was used to explore the homicidal behavior of kidnappers. Three styles of homicide, labeled as execution, manual, and slaughter, were identified. Each varied in the degree of expressive/instrumental aggression and planned or spontaneous violence. Classification of the sample data found that 46.4% of kidnapping homicides were characterized by instrumental violence labeled as execution style, whereas 42.9% were characterized by hostile violence that was spontaneous and less reliant on using a weapon (manual style). These observations related to the type of group conducting the kidnapping for ransom.

Synopsis: Kidnapping for ransom is examined as a business. This perspective draws attention to the need for an organization to exist to perpetrate the crime on a repetitive basis, whilst maintaining the ability to launder the money over a long period of time. The distinction is drawn between independent operators that kidnap for money and small groups that have access to a kidnapping network (or syndicate). Independent operators are rarely likely to kidnap for ransom, choosing only to ransom for small amounts of cash. These offenders are often petty criminals, although the motive behind the kidnapping is monetary gain, the intention is not to build a business empire. In contrast, small groups that kidnap with the intention of selling the hostage to a larger group or simply ransoming the hostage themselves are in effect developing a business.

No abstract

It is questionable whether violence toward a hostage varies according to criminal or radical orientation of their kidnappers who hold them for ransom. This notion is important because it relates to the assumption that how the hostage is treated may indicate whether the victim may survive the ordeal. To investigate, 181 kidnappings cases were cross-tabulated with four previously identified violent tactics (inflicting pain, terror, psychological torture, and reward tactics) and three distinctive type of kidnappers (common criminal, organized criminal, and radical/terrorist groups). The results indicated that criminal groups tended to use a range of violent tactics to coerce a hostage in captivity, while radical groups more often specialized in psychological torture. Regardless of these observations, specific forms of violence, for example inflicting pain, provided a better indication of whether the hostage would be killed by his or her kidnappers. This suggests that the intensity of violence and not the type of group conducting the kidnapping indicates whether the hostage will be killed. The implications to the social organization of kidnapping groups are discussed further.