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To find and retrieve a specific element that is located in different paths within a JSON structure, we can use a combination of recursion and conditional statements.

Here is the algorithm to retrieve the specific element:

1. Start with the root of the JSON structure.
2. Check if the current element is the desired element. If it is, return the element.
3. If the current element is not the desired element, check if it has child elements.
4. If it has child elements, recursively call the function for each child element.
5. If the child element returns the desired element, return the element.
6. If none of the child elements returns the desired element, return null (or whatever default value is suitable for your programming language).

Here is an example code snippet in Python:

def find_element(obj, key):
    # Check if the current element is the desired element
    if key in obj:
        return obj[key]

    # Check if the current element has child elements
    if isinstance(obj, dict):
        for k, v in obj.items():
            # Recursively call the function for each child element
            result = find_element(v, key)
            if result is not None:
                return result

    elif isinstance(obj, list):
        for item in obj:
            # Recursively call the function for each child element
            result = find_element(item, key)
            if result is not None:
                return result

    return None  # Element not found

To use this function, pass in the JSON structure as the first argument and the key of the desired element as the second argument. The function will return the value of the desired element if it is found, or None if it is not found.