Bridal Kidnapping in Central Asian States

• In Event: Politics of Communist & Former Communist Countries Virtual Poster Session I

Abstract

Nonconsensual bridal kidnapping is a practice which is common across Central Asian states, yet recent trends in kidnapping show substantial variation across these countries that share similar ethnic, cultural, and political heritages. We gather a large Russian and English language corpus of news reports documenting bridal kidnapping and utilize sentiment analysis and regression modeling using state-level characteristics to explain variation in bridal kidnapping. We find that the factors which predict positive or negative public sentiment towards kidnapping are corruption, female empowerment, and life expectancy.

Authors

• David Muchlinski, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Taylor Poole, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Chandler Thornhill, Georgia Institute of Technology