As defined by the common law, kidnapping is the forcible abduction or stealing away of a man, woman or child from their own country and sending them to another.131

Statutory enactments relating to kidnapping are numerous, some of them merely declaratory of the common law, and others making material modifications thereof. One statute in Illinois relating to kidnapping by forcibly taking any person out of the state or secretly confining him within the state against his will for the purpose of extorting ransom or money, inflicts the penalty of death or imprisonment for life.132

126Slocum vs. People, 90 Ill., 274; Henderson vs. People, 124 Ill., 615; State vs. Jamison, 38 Minn., 21.

127 State vs. Lyons, 52 Ind., 426.

128 Slocum vs. People, 90 Ill., 274. 129 Beaven vs. Com., 17 Ky., 246. 130 Scruggs vs. State, 90 Tenn., 81. 131 4 Blackstone Com., 219.

Under some statutes it is not essential that the person taken should be carried or sent into another state or country to constitute the offense. The taking of the person out of the county or away from his residence is a violation.

By statutory definition in most of the states an intention to unlawfully transport or conceal the person abducted is essential;133 and against the will is also material, or at least without the consent.134

It is sufficient if the act be done by putting the person in fear or if accomplished by threats or fraud amounting to coercion.135 Actual violence in the commission of this crime is not essential.136

If the person taken away be capable in law of giving consent and goes voluntarily without objection, there is no offense, in the absence of fraud or deception.137 But a child of tender years will not be regarded as competent to give consent to be taken away.138