hostage taker
Demands for captives
A hostage taker is someone who seizes and holds people captive, typically to force concessions from authorities or third parties.
The term appears in news coverage and legal contexts: Police negotiated with the hostage taker for six hours.
Unlike kidnapper, which emphasizes abduction, hostage taker focuses on the leverage—using captives as bargaining chips.
- kidnapperOne who seizes people
- captorOne who seizes another
- criminalPerson who breaks laws
- abductorOne who takes captives
- human shieldPerson used as protection
coercion · menace · perpetrator · bank robbery · armed standoff · Stockholm syndrome · sequestrator · manipulation · barricading · unlawful confinement · seizer · power imbalance · extortion · ransom demand · terrorism · felon · desperation · high stakes
- takers
- SWATSWAT, tactical team, entry team, ballistic shield, battering ram
- attackersaggressor, assailant, attacker, assaulter, ambusher
- Kidnappingkidnapping, captive, ransom note, kidnapper, abduction
- kidnapperskidnapper, abductor, snatcher, captor, ransomer
- Piratespirate, buccaneer, corsair, corsairs, privateers
hostage takerrescuer
One who saves others
hostage negotiator · liberator · SWAT team · first responder · crisis negotiator
hostage, taker, host, hostages, take, takes, taken, taking, retake