| Family law |
|
|
Marriage and other
equivalent or similar unions and status |
|
|
| Validity of marriages |
|
|
| Dissolution of marriages |
|
|
| Other issues |
|
|
| Private international law |
|
|
The Family and the Criminal Code
(or Criminal Law) |
|
|
|
|
Child abduction or
child theft is the unauthorized removal of a
minor (a child under the age of
legal adulthood) from the
custody of the child's
natural parents or
legally appointed guardians.
According to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children, in the USA an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing
every year, of which 97% are recovered.
[1].
The term child abduction conflates two legal and social categories
which differ by their perpetrating contexts: abduction by members of the
child's family or abduction by strangers:
- Parental child abduction:
a family relative's (usually parent's) unauthorized custody of a child
without parental agreement and contrary to family law ruling, which
largely removes the child from care, access and contact of the other
parent and family side. Occurring around parental separation or divorce, such parental or familial child abduction may include parental alienation, a form of child abuse seeking to disconnect a child from targeted parent and denigrated side of family.
- Abduction or kidnapping by strangers (from outside the family, natural or legal guardians) who steal a child for criminal purposes which may include:
Abductions by strangers
The stereotypical version of child abduction by a stranger is the classic form of "
kidnapping," exemplified by the
Lindbergh kidnapping,
in which the child is detained, transported some distance, held for
ransom or with intent to keep the child permanently. These instances are
rare. However, child abduction cases by a stranger or strangers of a
different nature are not so rare and are more common in society than
reported.
[1]
Child abduction for ransom: United States
The earliest nationally publicised kidnapping of a child by a
stranger for the purpose of extracting a ransom payment from the parents
was the Pool case of 1819, which took place in Baltimore, Maryland.
Margaret Pool, 20-months-old, was kidnapped on May 20 by Nancy Gamble
(19-years-old) and secreted with the assistance of Marie Thomas. On May
22, the parents, James and Mary Pool, placed an ad in the
Baltimore Patriot
newspaper offering a $20 reward for Mary’s return. When the child was
recovered on May 23—through the efforts of members of the community who
conducted a search—it was revealed that the child had been badly whipped
by Gamble and bore bloody wounds. Both Gamble and Thomas were tried for
the crime of kidnapping and found guilty. The motive for the crime was
demonstrated to be financial. She had kidnapped the child with the
intention of waiting for a reward to be offered, then would return the
child and collect the money. This is a technique favored by many ransom
child kidnappers before the use of written ransom demands became the
favored method.
[citation needed] Nancy Gamble's crime and subsequent trial were reported in detail in
Baltimore Patriot (June 26, 1819). The June 26 article, as well as others on the case that had appeared in the
Patriot,
were reprinted in newspapers in other states including: Connecticut,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,
Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Washington D.C.
Children abducted for slavery
Main article:
Child slavery
In 1597,
Elizabeth I of England licensed the abduction of children for use as chapel choristers and theatre performers.
[2]
There are reports that abduction of children to be used or sold as
slaves is common in parts of
Africa.
The
Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel paramilitary group operating mainly in northern
Uganda, is notorious for its abductions of children for use as
child soldiers or
sex slaves. According to the
Sudan Tribune, as of 2005, more than 30,000 children have been kidnapped by the LRA and their leader, Joseph Kony.
[3]
By stranger to raise
A very small number of abductions result in most cases from women who
kidnap babies (or other young children) to bring up as their own. These
women are often unable to have children of their own, or have
miscarried, and seek to satisfy their unmet psychological need by abducting a child rather than by
adopting. The crime is often premeditated, with the woman often
simulating pregnancy to reduce suspicion when a baby suddenly appears in the household.
Historically, a few states have accepted child abduction as a form of
punishment for political opponents or for profit. A notable case is
Francoist Spain, during which an estimated 300,000 children were abducted from their parents.
[4][5]
Some other abductions have been to make children available by
child-selling for adoption by other people,
[6] without adopting parents necessarily being aware of how children were actually made available for adoption.
[7]
Parental child abduction
By far the most common kind of child abduction is parental child abduction (200,000 in 2010 alone)
[8]
and often occurs when the parents separate or begin divorce
proceedings. A parent may remove or retain the child from the other
seeking to gain an advantage in expected or pending child-custody
proceedings or because that parent fears losing the child in those
expected or pending child-custody proceedings; a parent may refuse to
return a child at the end of an
access visit or may flee with the child to prevent an access visit or fear of domestic violence and abuse.
Parental child abductions may be within the same city, within the
state region or within the same country, or may be international.
Studies performed for the
U.S. Department of Justice's
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
reported that in 1999, 53% percent of family abducted children were
gone less than one week, and 21% were gone one month or more.
[9]
International child abduction
International child abduction occurs when a parent, relative or
acquaintance of a child leaves the country with the child or children in
violation of a custody decree or visitation order. Another related
situation is retention where children are taken on an alleged vacation
to a foreign country and are not returned.
While the number of cases which is over 600,000 a year consists of
international child abduction is small in comparison to domestic cases,
they are often the most difficult to resolve due to the involvement of
conflicting international jurisdictions. Two-thirds of international
parental abduction cases involve mothers who often allege domestic
violence. Even when there is a treaty agreement for the return of a
child, the court may be reluctant to return the child if the return
could result in the permanent separation of the child from their primary
caregiver. This could occur if the abducting parent faced criminal
prosecution or deportation by returning to the child's home country.
The
Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction
is an international human rights treaty and legal mechanism to recover
children abducted to another country. The Hague Convention does not
provide relief in many cases resulting in some parents hiring private
parties to recover their children. Covert recovery was first made public
when Don Feeney, a former Delta Commando, responded to a desperate
mother's plea to locate and recover her daughter from Jordan in the
1980s. Feeney successfully located and returned the child. A movie and
book about Feeney's exploits lead to other desperate parents seeking him
out for recovery services.
[10]
By 2007, both the United States, European authorities, and NGO's had
begun serious interest in the use of mediation as a means by which some
international child abduction cases may be resolved. The primary focus
was on Hague Cases. Development of mediation in Hague cases, suitable
for such an approach, had been tested and reported by REUNITE,
[11]
a London Based NGO which provides support in international child
abduction cases, as successful. Their reported success lead to the first
international training for cross-border mediation in 2008, sponsored by
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
[12]
Held at the University of Miami School of Law, Lawyers, Judges, and
certified mediators interested in international child abduction cases,
attended.
International child abduction is not new. A case of international
child abduction has been documented aboard the Titanic. However, the
incidence of international child abduction continues to increase due to
the ease of international travel, increase in bi-cultural marriages and a
high divorce rate. Parental abduction has been defined as child abuse.
[13]
Organizations
Organizations have set up websites where users can go to gain
knowledge or contribute help to stopping child abduction. Among these
are the organizations: Association For The Recovery Of Children or ARC,
Enough is Enough and
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which have partnered with the online community, Abducted Angels in the UK,
Myspace
to help keep the internet a safe place for children. Well known
International Child Recovery companies are Zamora & Associates and
ABP World Group Ltd.
See also
References
- Jump up ^ "NISMART
National Non-Family Abduction Report October 2002 (A study commissioned
by the US Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention found that there were only approximately 115
stereotypical stranger abductions in 1999)" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-09-09.
- Jump up ^ Coughlan, Sean (17 June 2013). "Elizabethan child actors 'kidnapped and whipped'". BBC News.
- Jump up ^ "Time may be running out for Uganda's LRA warlord - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan". Sudan Tribune. Retrieved 2012-09-09.
- Jump up ^ Adler, Katya (18 October 2011). "Spain's stolen babies and the families who lived a lie". BBC News.
- Jump up ^ Tremlett, Giles (27 January 2011). "Victims of Spanish 'stolen babies network' call for investigation". The Guardian.
- Jump up ^ Child Trafficking: A Cruel Trade, in The Economist, January 26, 2013, as accessed July 14, 2013.
- Jump up ^ Raymond, Barbara Bisantz, The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption (New York: Union Square Press, 1st ed. 2007 (ISBN 978-1-4027-5863-8)), p. 245.
- Jump up ^ Maureen, Dabbagh (2012). Parental Kidnapping in America. US: McFarland. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-7864-6533-0.
- Jump up ^ "NISMART National Family Abduction Report, October 2002" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-09-09.
- Jump up ^ › Donya Al-Nahi. "Rescue My Child: The Story of the Ex-Delta Commandos Who Bring Home Children Abducted Overseas: Neil C. Livingstone: Books". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2012-09-09.
- Jump up ^ "Reunite International". Reunite.org. Retrieved 2012-09-09.
- Jump up ^ "National Center for Missing and Exploited Children". Missingkids.com. Retrieved 2012-09-09.
- Jump up ^ "Parental Child Abduction is Child Abuse". Prevent-abuse-now.com. 1999-06-09. Retrieved 2012-09-09.
External links
