Child Abduction And Kidnapping Similarities

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. Child abduction happens when a parent or a relative or someone acting on their behalf removes, retains, or conceals a child, under the age of 16, in breach of the other parent’s custody rights whether joint or sole. 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,

These terms are used interchangeably these days, but they differ in terms of laws.

⦁ Abduction is when someone uses deceit or force in order to take a person or a child away from their home or relatives. The abductors do not reveal their motive for taking away the person or the child.” In legal definition, the victim knows or has some sort of relation with the abductor. The victim can be a minor or an adult. The most common cases of abduction are seen in divorce cases, where one parent is given the sole custody of a child. The person who abducts is not holding the person for profit or any monetary gain from the victim. The laws for abduction crimes vary from state to state and country to country, depending on the severity of the

In many ways, having a child abducted and not ever knowing his or her true fate, is worse than the child’s actual death. In this crime, there was a beginning, but there is no end. This psychological limbo ensures the parents pain continues indefinitely. Most abduction, end with some type of finality. In some cases, it is the beginning of a life of grief to devastated parents. The complexities of the issue are derived from the changing definition of what actually constitutes a missing or abducted child. Missing is a term that is widely used in law enforcement and if a child is missing under virtually any conditions, even if the circumstances are simply a misunderstanding of where the child should be, that incident is counted as a missing child. Parental abductions, which constitute the overwhelming majority of abducted juveniles, are, statistically, not as physically harmful to the victim as stranger abductions. Parents in those situations are usually involved in a custodial feud with their spouses. The most serious type of abductions, which are classified as stereotypical kidnappings are the rarest and according to available research the most dangerous. Over 40 percent of these incidents end with the child’s death.

There are three major definitions used in the data to describe the varying circumstances of child abduction.

⦁ Non-family abduction When a non-family perpetrator takes a child by the use of physical