In this article, the author examines the features of the pre-trial stage of the investigation in the investigation of kidnapping. The initial stage of the investigation consists of: starting a pre-trial investigation, conducting urgent investigative and procedural actions and attracting a person as a suspect. The initial stage of the investigation of a crime, including kidnapping, is crucial for the implementation of further qualitative and offensive investigation of criminal acts. The purpose of this article is to study the natureand features of the beginning of the pre-trial investigation of kidnapping. In the course of the study, the author used such methods of scientific research as: dialectical, system, method of qualitative and quantitative analysis, generalization and study of literary sources, comparative legal, historical-legal, system-structural and formal-logical methods, as well as the method of system analysis. Activities to identify signs of a crime must be considered through the prism of the beginning of a pretrial investigation. Currently, the beginning of a pre-trial investigation, from the point of view of criminology, refers to very specific types of organizational activities at the initial stage of the investigation of a kidnapping. The detection and investigation of kidnappings is highly complex, requiring law enforcement officials to maintain strict secrecy. If there is a reason provided for by the criminal procedure law to start a pre-trial investigation, the investigator or an employee of the body of inquiry is obliged to establish the presence of sufficient data indicating signs of kidnapping. To do this, it is necessary to carefully study the content of the application, compare the available factual data. The beginning of a pre-trial investigation should not be an end in itself of the activities of the pre-trial investigation bodies. At the same time, their offensive and proactive work on all received facts, information and operational materials is extremely important, because it is the embodiment of the active position of the law enforcement system inthe direction of preventing and suppressing possible illegal encroachments on personal freedom, including the suppression of those criminal actions that are in the stages of their preparation or beginning.