Because of a series of historical, social, cultural and political reasons, in Italy the history of kidnapping has not had an exclusively criminal connotation and has gained features of uniqueness in Europe. After a wide diffusion, with passing of the time, this kind of crime has ended not to be part of the interests of mafia associations, while in the past it was their principal activity. Nevertheless, another kind of kidnapping, the flash kidnapping, seems to have gained the interests of specialized criminal groups. After having described the historical evolution and the different typologies of traditional kidnapping, the authors focus on the description of different kinds of flash kidnapping, in the two versions known at the moment: protracted robbery and robbery with hostage taking. Finally, they have outlined a profile about new typologies of kidnappings occurring in clandestine immigration traffic.
