It can also be helpful to have information about your co-parent, including his or her address, the make, model, and license plate number of his or her car, and contact information for his or her relatives if you are concerned about a possibility of abduction. Call Childline free on 0800 1111, For information on parental child abduction see:

Less than one-fifth are committed by a stranger¹.

However, there are roughly four times as many attempted abductions by a stranger recorded by police¹. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) states that "203,000 children are kidnapped each year by family members. Nearly one-fifth of completed abductions recorded by police are perpetrated by a stranger (someone who was not known to, or recognised by, the victim). Download our English Dictionary apps - available for both iOS and Android. In other cases, individuals may be abducted but more readily identify themselves as victims of a sex offence, robbery, or assault etc. In Scotland, there exists another common law offence of abduction: “the carrying off or confining of a person forcibly and without lawful authority” ³. Abduction can be recorded for child and adult victims.


Last 50 years And best of all it's ad free, so sign up now and start using at home or in the classroom. While the fear that a stranger will kidnap their child is prevalent among parents, most instances of child abduction occur in cases involving custody disputes. www.pact-online.org/advice. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), which has been accepted in all states except Massachusetts, and the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA), which is a federal law, require states to recognize and enforce custody orders from other states.

DEFINITION. Over four-fifths of completed abductions recorded by the police involve a perpetrator known to the child. If a custody action has not yet been filed, it would likely be best to file an action to establish custody of the child. If the court in the foreign country determines the child was wrongfully abducted, it will order the child to be returned to his or her home country within six weeks. Parental child abduction occurs during the course or after divorce proceedings.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland recorded 45 kidnappings in 2014/15⁵, a decrease of 18%. Additionally, the FBI defines “social media” as websites and mobile applications that allow users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. Child abduction can be committed by parents or other family members; by people known but not related to the victim, such as neighbours, friends and acquaintances; and by strangers.

Remember, these warning signs don’t mean an abduction will happen. As such you can petition the court to hold your co-parent in contempt and seek to modify the custody arrangement. PACT’s research indicates that non-parental child abduction has been increasing at a faster rate than parental abductions⁶. “Appropriate consent” is the consent of the mother, the father (if he has parental responsibility), the guardian or anyone with a residence order, parental responsibility or the leave (permission) of the court.
Another 58,200 are abducted by non-family members."

“Other persons” are people other than the child’s parent, guardian or a person with parental responsibility for the child. Amaze your friends with your new-found knowledge! The majority of non-parental child abductions recorded by police are perpetrated by strangers or by people exploiting young people¹. If one parent unjustly prevents the other parent of a child from seeing the child despite a custody order requiring them to do so, and will not provide the other parent with information regarding the child’s whereabouts, it is considered a parental child abduction. More information on the law and child abduction is available in our briefing paper: Child Abduction: The Legislative Jigsaw. Many more cases of international parental child abduction go unreported to the police.

The Act makes it a criminal offence for anyone “connected with” a child under the age of 16 to “take or send” that child out of the UK without the appropriate consent. The FBI defines child abduction as the unexplained disappearance of a minor, especially very young minors (generally, any child under 12). All Years In 2014/15 Police Scotland recorded 234 offences of abduction (involving both child and adult victims)7 . Not all children who are abducted perceive themselves to have been victimised. The Child Abduction Act also makes it a criminal offence for “other persons” to “take or detain” a child under the age of 16 without lawful authority or reasonable excuse. Child abduction. International parental child abduction is the removal or retention of a child outside their country of habitual residence in breach of another parent or guardian’s custody rights.

Space Week falls at this calendar juncture because this first October week is bookended by two key dates. Belfast: Police Service Northern Ireland.⁶ Newiss, G. and Collie, C. (2015) Police-recorded child abduction and kidnapping 2012/13 to 2013/14 England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A parent removes or retains 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 … However, many more incidents go unreported to the police [link to briefing paper on Surveys] and some may not be recorded. Abduction is defined as taking away a person by persuasion, by fraud, or by open force or violence.