Kidnapping is a common tactic used by insurgent groups. However, why insurgents commit kidnappings remains insufficiently understood. Based on 1,386 group-year observations of 140 insurgents between 1998 and 2012, we analyze conditions driving the within-group temporal changes in their involvement (1 vs 0) versus event-frequency in kidnappings. We find that changes in specific quasi-state activities (i.e., extraction and provision of public services), which may rely on kidnappings for coercive enforcement and social control, predict kidnapping “involvement” only. Meanwhile, general resource and capacity conditions (i.e., territory-control, criminal networks and combat-lethality) influence changes in both kidnapping involvement and event-frequency.
Despite an increasing amount of literature on police use of force, special tactical police—the specialists in the infliction of force within police forces—remains understudied, especially outside of the English-speaking world. Based on 23 semi-structured interviews and 22 days of ethnographic observation, this exploratory study aims to understand how special tactical police officers in China experience and perceive their own use of force. What are the common situations giving rise to their use of force and how do they process the moral repugnance of having to inflict force on people? Amongst others, this study found that moral ambivalence is not uncommon, especially among those routinely deployed to crowd-control situations. Two ‘coping’ mechanisms were identified via which experienced officers managed to integrate conflicting moral perspectives: by holding up faith in the decision-making at higher levels and the ‘larger collective good’ served by their use of force, or by dismissing their personal perspectives as irrelevant and ‘disengaged’ from the moral deliberation process. Implications were discussed.
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