Kidnapping is taking and carrying away someone with the intent of depriving them of personal liberty. When it comes to common law there are six elements of kidnapping and they are seizing, carrying away, confining, deception or force or threat of force, another person, and an intent to deprive someone of their personal liberty. An actus reus (taking and carrying away someone) + Mens rea (confining the victim) + circumstance (statute) = criminal conduct (kidnapping). Since the 1990s kidnapping has become a serious felony and in some states it’s even a capital offense. With the increase in kidnappings legislatures decided to enact harsh kidnapping statutes. Typically kidnapping is divided into two degrees: …show more content…
In the 70s a feminist advocacy swept through the country. This advocacy had the rape law at the top of their agenda. This group lobbied state legislatures in order to revise the rape laws. By the 1980s every state and the District of Columbia had changed at least several parts of their old law. Some states even banished the word “rape” and adopted a comprehensive criminal sexual conduct statute. This statute replaced the crime of rape with a series of graded offenses, eliminated the requirement of the victim from having to prove they did not consent by physically resisting, eliminated the requirement of the prosecutor of corroborating the testimony of the victim, restricted the evidence of the victim’s prior sexual activity, and eliminated that rape does not apply to