hostage
Sign in to savethumb|Police trainees recovering a hostage during a training exercise
AI overview
A hostage is a person held by someone against their will, typically as leverage to force others to meet demands or comply with conditions. It matters because hostage situations pose serious dangers to the person being held and require careful intervention by law enforcement or negotiators to resolve safely.
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Article
14 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Legality of hostage-taking
- Hostage taking within diplomacy
- Hostage-taking in the United States
- Hostage Taking Act
- 18 USC 1203: Hostage Taking Act
- Ransom payment strategies
- Notable hostages crises
- Notable hostages
- Pre-1900
- 1900 - present
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|Police trainees recovering a hostage during a training exercise
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized—such as a relative, employer, law enforcement, or government—to act, or refrain from acting, in a certain way, often under threat of serious physical harm or death to the hostage(s) after expiration of an ultimatum. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition defines a hostage as "a person who is handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war."