Q: I'm an author looking to write a realistic account of what happens to a character who commits a crime.
Character attempts to kidnap child, is caught and arrested before he can succeed. Child is unharmed. Character confesses a sexual interest in the child, however, has committed (nor attempted) no prior crimes whatsoever. Any information about this proceeding will be helpful, but specifically my questions are:
1) How might this man be tried and what for, considering the child was never actually brought to harm?
2) What might the sentence be for this crime?
A: An attempt to commit a crime is still a crime, so attempted kidnapping is the likely charge. Possible penalties are set by state and/or federal law, and any sentence would be within the range allowed by law. Predicting the actiual sentence would be impossible.
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