Citation

Soothill K, Francis B, Ackerley E. Behav. Sci. Law 2007; 25(1): 69-84.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/bsl.684

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Kidnapping has been a neglected crime in criminological research. In fact, there has been a dramatic increase in the yearly numbers of police recorded kidnapping offences in England and Wales in the last 25 years, but this has not been matched by a similar increase in convictions. This study focuses on the official criminal histories of the 7042 males and 545 females who were convicted at least once for kidnapping between 1979 and 2001. Of these, 3.9% of the males and 2.6% of the females had convictions for kidnapping on more than one occasion.