Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away of a person against the person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment (confinement without legal authority) for ransom or in furtherance of another crime. In the terminology of the common law in many jurisdictions (according to Black's Law Dictionary), the crime of kidnapping is labelled abduction when the victim is a woman. In modern usage, kidnapping or abduction of a child is often called child stealing.
Kidnapping in ancient times, was a common means used to obtain slaves; in more recent times, kidnapping in the form of shanghaiing men was used to supply American merchant ships in the 19th century with sailors, whom the law considered unfree labor. See also impressment.
The term false imprisonment refers to the confinement of a person without legal authority. Some examples would be an elderly patient in a retirement home being illegally restrained to a wheelchair or a person held in jail or prison for a crime they did not commit. With regard to conviction and incarceration of the innocent, the term is often associated with the notion that the police or prosecution knows the person is (or is likely) being falsely imprisoned though false imprisonment in this context, based on it’s true definition, need not being intentional. Writ of habeas corpus is a legal means in which an inmate can petition a court to gain his freedom on the basis of false imprisonment.