GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON KIDNAPPING AND CRIMES OF (IM)MOBILITY

Kidnapping is a pervasive presence across a range of insecure global settings: fragile states where crime, violence and impunity reign; diverse conflict-zones; unstable regions where global inequalities play out; and, increasingly, the precarious paths of migrant flows. Whilst this illicit phenomenon is often presented in sensationalist terms by the media, as a research topic kidnapping remains under-examined and under-theorised. It is also an illicit practice that, despite its prevalence, has been somewhat neglected by global crime policy intervention. Certainly, elite-kidnappings for ransom and abductions by militant groups are recognised as important concerns. However, the (often-uncritical) concentration upon these more orthodox manifestations of kidnapping, and state-led responses to it, masks other variants of this illicit practice, as well as innovations in counter-kidnapping from beyond the state.

In this context, increased academic attention and exchange is required to address this research deficit. There is a pressing need to better understand the contextual factors, the local-global interplay and the licit-illicit intersections that shape kidnapping dynamics, as well as counter-kidnapping responses, across the world. Further, kidnapping must be appreciated as sitting within a fluid spectrum of criminality: one where it overlaps with other illicit activities and markets; one where the status of both victims and perpetrators is fluid and temporally evolving; and, one where the immobilizing impulse of kidnapping also triggers multiple mobilities and mobilizations.

For these reasons, we are hosting this event to bring more co-ordinated research attention to kidnapping, as well as to promote broader academic exchange that encompasses its connections with wider, often intersecting, crimes of (im)mobility.

This workshop forms part of the research programme for the Newton Fund project ‘Mobile Solutions to the Mexican Kidnapping Epidemic: Beyond Elite Counter-Measures, Towards Citizen-Led Innovation.’ We are also grateful for the additional support received from the School of Law, University of Leeds and the Center for Law and Human Behavior at the University of Texas at El Paso.