Affiliation:
1. Fudan University Law School, Shanghai, China
2. Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK and Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Abstract
Kidnapping is a common tactic used by insurgent groups. However, why insurgents commit kidnappings remains insufficiently understood. Based on 1,386 group-year observations of 140 insurgents between 1998 and 2012, we analyze conditions driving the within-group temporal changes in their involvement (1 vs 0) versus event-frequency in kidnappings. We find that changes in specific quasi-state activities (i.e., extraction and provision of public services), which may rely on kidnappings for coercive enforcement and social control, predict kidnapping “involvement” only. Meanwhile, general resource and capacity conditions (i.e., territory-control, criminal networks and combat-lethality) influence changes in both kidnapping involvement and event-frequency.
Funder
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
Major Humanities and Social Science Project of Shanghai Education Commission
Subject
Political Science and International Relations,Sociology and Political Science,General Business, Management and Accounting