Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
As a general rule, most authorities and experts on the dynamics of
hostage situations still recommend cooperation. This is even truer if you
are taken hostage in a known location and not kidnapped and taken some-
place convenient for the kidnappers. For example, if you are taken hostage
by bank robbers after a botched robbery, it is likely that law enforcement
has been alerted to the situation and will dispatch appropriately trained
negotiators and assault personnel to end the crisis. In that case, unless
an opportunity presents itself for you either to escape or to overcome the
bad guys, you should wait and allow the professionals to handle the job.
According to security experts, even if you are being abducted, you still
have a better chance of survival if you cooperate and comply with the
demands of the kidnappers.
WHAT TO EXPECT
If you have chosen to be compliant, you must expect to be handled
roughly, even brutally. Physical violence is likely even if you follow the
abductors' demands. There are those who seek to explain this wanton use
of violence by blaming the captors' frightened mental state. In reality,
there is no need to search for any rationale other than the fact that the
people capable of perpetrating this type of crime are vicious criminals for
whom violence is a way of life. Physical abuse of a helpless captive, much
the same as the abuse perpetrated by a rapist on his victim, is one way for
abductors to feel important and powerful. Expect to be blindfolded. There
are several reasons for this. First, blindfolded people are more helpless as
a natural result of the disorientation they feel being deprived of their
sight. Second, the blindfold prevents victims from learning where they are
being taken. This will reduce the chance that they will try to escape, even
if the chance arises, because of the uncertainty of not knowing where they
are. It will also prevent victims from disclosing where they are being held
in the unlikely event they are able to pass a message or communicate with
the outside world.
Many other indignities will be perpetrated on victims of a kidnapping.
While it is difficult to prepare to endure them, at least knowing about
them beforehand may allow you to anticipate what is going to happen
next. The kidnappers will almost certainly continue to try to keep you
disoriented. Disorientation, by the way, is a favorite technique of hostage
