Kidnapping is a taking and conveying away a person against his or her will, either by force, fraud, or intimidation.

Kidnapping is also committed if the consent to such removal is induced by fraud, or if the victim is legally incompetent to give a valid consent, as in the case of a young child or of a feeble-minded person. The essential elements of kidnapping and of false imprisonment are about the same, except that the former includes, in addition to a detention, the act of carrying away the victim to another place, usually for the purpose of avoiding discovery.

The penalty for kidnapping is severe in California. Sentences are usually long prison terms. Judges rarely grant the defendant any kind of leniency.

A person legally entrusted with the custody of another is not guilty of kidnapping that person. But a parent may be guilty of kidnapping his or her own child if custody of the child has been given to another by court order. When the parents have separated without legal decree, one may take the child from the other even by trick or deception, without committing the offense of kidnapping.

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