jay wrote:If your hands are tied behind your back, it is possible to free yourself, or are you considered to be helpless?
It all depends on the kind of rope, how well they're tied, whether the knot has been placed out of reach, and whether you have access to anything that might permit you to cut the ropes. If you are not tied to anything, and just your hands are tied, you can still do quite a lot even if you can't get your hands free. You could walk around and find a phone, etc. So I wouldn't call that situation truly helpless. OTOH, if your hands are tied to something immovable, you could be made helpless even with the hands tied in front, as long as the ends of the rope were securely knotted out of your reach. For that matter, the same could be true if just one ankle were securely tied to something. As long as both the final knot and any cutting implement were out of reach of your hands, they could remain free and you'd still be a prisoner just as if you had been shackled with a leg iron.