Kidnapping

Kidnapping [r]: The violent or forcible stealing of a human, against their will, by imprisoning them or restraining them physically perhaps by using ropes or chains and often under the threat of further physical assault, and usually moving them to a secondary location where their friends and authorities and police can not find them, and to further secure their imprisonment. Since it is often easier to steal children, the term originated in the theft of small kids, hence the term kid-napping. There is no legal basis for such an act; it is often done to try to extract a ransom or payment of money in exchange for a promise to release the victim unharmed. In Greek mythology according to Classics scholar Elizabeth Vandiver, the god in charge of transactions, including ones characterized by fraud and theft, was Hermes. In the Iliad and in other stories about the Trojan war, there were varying opinions whether Helen of Troy was kidnapped by prince Paris from Sparta where she was married to King Menelaus, or whether she willingly went with her supposed abductor. [e]

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