A person generally commits the criminal offense of kidnapping by using force or other means of instilling fear to steal, take, hold, detain, abduct, or arrest a person and take them to another location. A person of any age may be a victim of kidnapping.

And a person generally commits the criminal offense of aggravated kidnapping if the person (1) uses force, fear, or fraud upon a victim who is a child under 14 years of age; (2) accompanies the kidnapping with a demand for ransom; (3) causes the victim to suffer serious bodily injury or death; (4) kidnaps a person during a carjacking; (5) uses the victim as a shield or hostage; or (6) exhibits or uses a deadly weapon during the course of the kidnapping.

Kidnapping laws vary from state to state, including definitions and affirmative defenses, such as whether the person taken is related to the kidnapper. Some states have child abduction laws that apply to the abduction of children by parents or relatives when the child is not moved a significant distance (out of county or state). Kidnapping laws are generally located in a state’s statutes—often in the penal or criminal code.

In South Carolina, kidnapping is defined under South Carolina Code of Laws Section 16-3-910. The statute describes kidnapping as unlawfully seizing, confining, inveigling, decoying, kidnapping, abducting, or carrying away any person by any means without authority of law. This offense does not require the victim to be transported over a significant distance. Aggravated kidnapping, while not specifically defined as a separate offense in South Carolina, would be considered a more serious form of kidnapping and could lead to enhanced penalties, especially when it involves minors under the age of 14, demands for ransom, serious bodily injury or death to the victim, carjacking, using the victim as a shield or hostage, or the exhibition or use of a deadly weapon during the kidnapping. South Carolina law also addresses the abduction of children by parents or relatives in cases of custodial interference under Section 16-17-495, which can apply even if the child is not moved a significant distance. Penalties for kidnapping offenses are severe and can include lengthy prison sentences.