Kidnapping is now the talk of the town. It is a criminal offence which is the unlawful taking and carrying away of a person by force or detention of a person against their will. Recently, kidnapping for the purpose of extortion has become a tactic of political revolutionaries or terrorists seeking concession from a government.
\nIn earlier times kidnapping meant carrying persons away to another country for involuntary servitude. It also referred to the practices of conscripting males into military service by fraudulent inducement or force and of shanghaiing merchant seamen in port cities.
\nAbducting young women and selling them for purpose of concubinage or prostitution has also been characterized as a form of kidnapping. In current statuses, this is often described as abduction.
\nFrequent acts of violent crimes have grown to form a major threat to Nigeria\u2019s national security. These include militancy, insurgency and banditry. Kidnapping has remained the most virulent form of banditry in Nigeria. It has become the most pervasive and intractable violent crime in the country.
\nKidnapping can be targeted at individuals or groups. It has led to the loss of thousands of lives and huge sums of money in Rivers State and elsewhere. Many victims of the crime have been killed in the course of their abduction, custody or release, and many more have been injured. This is in addition to huge sums of money lost to ransom takers over the victims and their families. The consequences are frightful.
\nRivers State should never have got here in the first place. Kidnapping has become one of the most dangerous and traumatic threats to any person living within the State. Each kidnapping incident is a direct attack on the hearts of families, companies, individuals and causes a significant impact on society in general. This greatly disrupts the family routine, social interactions and the employment capabilities of some families.
\nSeveral factors have been identified for kidnapping among Nigerian youths. Some include social and moral decadence, peer group influence, drug abuse, mass media , ethnic nationalism, ethnic militia, godfatherism, elites, economy, population and family influence, among others.
\nThis crime is a growing global epidemic with no real solution. It, therefore, has attracted the attention of different fields of study. Sociologists, social psychologists, clinical psychologists, social workers, philosophers and economists have begun to research into the causes and consequences of kidnapping because it is one of the most psychologically damaging crimes.
\nVictims typically take many years to heal from the psychological wounds inflicted upon them and some never completely recover. Kidnapping causes deep emotional and mental scars that leave victims to battle through issues of trust, independence, love, sex, respect and a litany of others.
\nFurthermore, kidnap victims may have psychological disturbances in other aspects of their everyday lives. Trouble-sleeping is one of the most commonly reported psychological impacts of kidnapping as the victims are afraid to fall asleep and let their guard down, lest be taken again.
\nSexual defects are also likely in cases of kidnapping that involves sexual abuse. Survivors may find it hard to trust their partners or to allow themselves to be vulnerable. Victims of abduction may need many years of therapy to form healthy sexual relationships.
\nThere are many causes of kidnapping around the globe which include: unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, religion, greed, politics and corruption.
\nThe possible ways of eradicating kidnapping it include training anti-kidnapping agents because any country that wants to fight kidnapping successfully must hire and train capable agents to combat the issue. When law enforcement agencies are actively involved, the incident will lessen.
\nThere should be serious punishment for offenders and fewer abductions will occur. Also, more job opportunities should be created because \u201cthe idle mind is the devil\u2019s workshop\u201d. Jobs, especially for the youths, can have a huge impact in the fight against crime. When people are gainfully employed, they do not need to commit crime.
\nReports show that the police are involved in some kidnappings. This is unfortunate. They have to be monitored to eliminate the criminals within their ranks.
\nHarry is a Port Harcourt-based freelance journalist.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Favour Harry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kidnapping is now the talk of the town. It is a criminal offence which is the unlawful taking and carrying away of a person by force or detention of a person against their will. Recently, kidnapping for the purpose of extortion has become a tactic of political revolutionaries or terrorists seeking concession from a government. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=210484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=210484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=210484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=210484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}