quick clicks

grandparents today articles

grandparents today q&a

message boards

research baby names

prepare a birth plan

content channels

ip channel rss feeds

read birth stories

read parenting stories

recommended books

e-newsletters

safety recalls

ip diaries

ip store

mom of the month

dad of the month

editor's letter

letters to the editor

Parental Abduction

When Parents Kidnap Their Own

By Carma Haley

The Missing Children's Registry of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada has developed an overall profile of parental abductions. The profile was constructed to assist those whose child has been abducted by a parent and includes facts such as:

• Either parent, mother or father, will abduct his or her own child.
• Mothers tend to abduct children after a court order is completed while fathers do so before the court order.
• Mothers who abduct their children will keep the children for a longer period of time then fathers who abduct.
• The "average" age range for parents who abduct their child is 28 to 40 years of age.
• The fathers who abduct their children are likely to have employment while the mothers who abduct are more likely to be unemployed.
• The majority of children who are abducted by their own parent but kept within the United States are between 3 and 7 years of age, but children who are taken out of the country tend to be 8 years of age or older.
• Both male and female children are abducted equally.
• The majority of children abducted by their own parent are done so from the home and not from areas such as a babysitters, daycare or schoolyard.
• The abductor, both mother and father, typically makes contact within 48 hours of abducting the child to inform the searcing parent of the child's well being.


Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  



Want to see more?

• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• Teaching Your Children the Dangers of Strangers
• Sexual Abuse: How to Prevent It