Family Abduction: Prevention and Response

• NCJ Number: 201536
• Author(s): Patricia M. Hoff
• Date Published: March 2002
• Length: 248 pages
• Grant Number(s): 98-MC-CX-K002
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Corporate Author: National Ctr for Missing and Exploited Children
• Sale Source: National Ctr for Missing and Exploited Children
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded on July 15, 2003.

Annotation

This publication assists parents and other family members in preventing family abductions.

Abstract

Family abductions are defined as a family member wrongfully abducting a child. Not only are tips for keeping children safe from family abductions presented in this publication, it also serves as a guide about the criminal and civil justice system response to family kidnappings. After a brief glossary of terms used throughout the publication, a family-abduction prevention and action checklist is presented to summarize steps a parent can take to prevent an abduction or to recover a missing child. The second section, Preventing Abductions, provides a general overview of what parents and other family members can do to safeguard children at risk. The third section discusses civil court remedies once a child is abducted. Discussions in this section cover getting custody in special circumstances and what a non-custodial parent can do when the custodial parent disappears with the child. The fourth section details criminal remedies in family abduction cases, and includes descriptions of the criminal justice process in such cases. The fifth section describes aspects involved with searching for a missing child, including organizations that specialize in missing children and other sources of information. The sixth section covers legal methods of child recovery in the United States. Laws and procedures, including the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act and the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction are discussed. The seventh section describes what parents can do to organize a comprehensive response to a real or threatened international abduction. The focus of the section is on children who are removed from the United States unlawfully. The eighth section discusses issues pertinent to the psychological recovery following an abduction and to the family reunification process. The ninth section describes the impact that an abduction has on children through the use of a case study. Finally, the appendices offer additional information about missing children organizations and laws that apply to family abductions.