According to the Cornell University website, false imprisonment is a crime where one person restrains another person within a contained area (2010). False imprisonment happens when a person is kept in a room with a locked door, through physical force, or through “a failure to release” (Cornell University). If I went over to a friend’s house and that friend tied me to a chair and locked me in a room from the outside and I had no means of escape, that would be an example of false imprisonment.
False imprisonment differs from kidnapping because in false imprisonment, the victim may have voluntarily entered the place of his or her imprisonment while in kidnapping, the victim is usually seized, abducted, or carried away from a safe place and is then held for ransom (United States Code Title 18 Part 1 Chapter 55 § 1201 Kidnapping, 2011). Anyone may be kidnapped. Kidnapping victims include children, adults, and public officials. Reasons for kidnapping include selling victims into prostitution or slavery.
A false arrest happens when a police officer arrests someone without a warrant, “with an illegal warrant, or with a warrant illegally executed” (Cornell University, 2010). The difference between false imprisonment and false arrest is that false imprisonment can be performed by anyone while a false arrest has to be made by someone in a legal position of authority such as a police officer or an FBI detective. Other individuals who may be guilty of false arrest include business owners and private security personnel. Often security personnel hold someone they suspect of shoplifting. Private security personnel have no legal authority to hold someone. Instead, private security employees should contact the local police to come and question the suspect.
References
False imprisonment. (2010). Legal Information Institute. Retrieved from Cornell University Law
School Online http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/false_imprisonment.
U.S.C. Title 18 Part 1 Chapter 55 § 1201 Kidnapping, 2011.
