Missing Children

Although U.S. custody laws vary from state to state, abducting one's own child is a crime in every state. When a family member takes or keeps a child away from the parent with custody or visitation rights, that person may have committed a crime. However, some states require that a custody order be in place for the act to be considered criminal. More importantly, seeing open conflict in their family, spending life on the run, and being deprived of a parent is psychologically harmful to a child ( Johnston et al. 2001).

Family abductions are most frequently motivated by domestic discord and custody disputes. Abducting parents typically fit one of six different profiles.

Profile 1 abductors are family members who have made credible threats in the past and/or have a history of withholding visitation or kidnapping the child. The parent may be unemployed and have no emotional or financial ties to the area. Alternatively, the parent may have divulged plans to abduct the child and have the financial and emotional resources to survive in hiding. The abducting parent may have liquidated assets and borrowed the maximum from all sources.

The Profile 2 abductor is one who believes the other parent is abusing, molesting, or neglecting the child and will continue to do so. Family and friends support the parent in this belief. The allegations of sexual abuse by a parent or stepparent that motivate the noncustodial parent to abduct are frequently unsubstantiated.

The Profile 3 abductor suffers from paranoid delusions, and represents the greatest risk of harm or death to the child. Although these are the smallest percentage of abductors, they have psychotic delusions that the other parent will definitely harm them or the child. They perceive the child not as a separate entity but either as a part of themselves needing rescue or as a part of the other parent, which can lead to murder and suicide.

Profile 4 abductors are severely sociopathic and relatively rare. Characterized by a long history of flagrant violations of the law and contempt for authority, they relate to others in a self-serving, exploitative, and manipulative manner. They feel superior and would have no qualms about abusing or abducting their child and feel they should not be punished for it.

Profile 5 abductors are parents in a mixed-culture family with strong ties to their country of origin and to extended family there. During times of separation or divorce, they feel abandoned in their new culture and wish to return to their ethnic or religious roots to find emotional support and to reconstitute their self-identity. Returning with the child to the family and country of origin is a way of giving the abducting parent's cultural identity preeminent status in the child's upbringing.

Profile 6 abductors feel isolated from the judicial system in several different ways. They may be indigent and uneducated without knowledge of custody and abduction laws. They may not be able to afford the court system or have had negative experiences with it. Some parents belong to religious or ethnic groups that hold views about rearing children and custody rights contrary to law. A mother who had a transient, unmarried relationship with the child's father may be unaware that the father has any rights and may be supported in that belief by her family and friends. Parents who have been the victims of domestic violence and who received no help through the law are also likely abductors ( Johnston et al. 2001).