NCJ Number
139299
Journal
Canadian Journal of Psychiatry Volume: 37 Issue: 4 Dated: (May 1992) Pages: 264-266
Date Published
1992
Length
3 pages
Annotation
A sample of 20 divorce custody/access cases involving abduction assessed at the Ottawa (Canada) Family Court Clinic over a period of 6 months was examined to determine characteristics of the abductions and the psychopathology seen in the 37 children who were all located and returned to the custodial parent. A control group of 20 noncustodial parents and 41 children were selected from cases of custody/access disputes which did not involve abduction.
Abstract
The typical parental abduction is a noncustodial father who is often born outside of North America, providing him with the opportunity to remove the children from the country. He often has a history of psychiatric contact, but is more likely to have a personality or substance abuse disorder than to display symptoms of an affective or psychotic illness. Many of the abducting parents had criminal records; the most common offenses were assault, possession of drugs, and minor theft. This study found less psychopathology among the children than had previous research. This may be due to the relatively short length of the abductions and the company of siblings in 80 percent of the cases examined here. About one-third of the children did not realize they had been abducted. The number of children with psychiatric symptoms was comparable in the control group. 8 references