Preventing Family Abduction
Family abduction happens when a family member, usually a parent, kidnaps and conceals a child for any length of time. It is a serious crime that happens to over 200,000 families a year. The emotional, psychological, and physical impact on children is often so great that family abduction is considered a form of child endangerment. Many states prosecute family abduction as a felony.
Protect Your Child
Parents who fell victim to family abduction were often not aware that something like this could happen to them. Most people think strangers are to blame in child kidnappings, but family abductions are much more common. Here is what you can do:
- Respect the other parent's custody and visitation rights. Anger, frustration and desperation are leading causes of family abduction.
- Try to maintain a friendly relationship with your ex-spouse and his/her family. This may be difficult, but it can save you from experiencing the far greater trauma of family abduction. The family will be less willing to aid in an abduction if they have a relationship with you. If an abduction does occur, you will need the support of the kidnapper's family to bring your child home safely.
- Consider counseling or mediation. As little as 10 hours of intervention can effectively reduce the stress, anger and frustration that lead to family abduction. Information on obtaining counseling or mediation services is available at www.divorceinfo.com. Childfind of America (1-800-426-5678) offers a mediation hotline. Your local family court can also help you with referrals to counseling or mediation services.
- Begin the custody process immediately and get temporary custody of your child. You cannot prove your custody rights without a custody order.
- Write down abduction threats. Report them to the family courts or your lawyer immediately.
- Ask the police or prosecutor to intervene. If a parent threatens to abduct a child, it can help to ask the local police or prosecutor to contact the parent and warn him/her of the criminal consequences.
- Give schools, healthcare providers, day care centers and babysitters copies of the custody order. Ask to be contacted immediately if the non-custodial parent tries to pick up your child without explicit authorization.
- Keep lists of identifying information about the other parent, including Social Security number, current photographs, license plate numbers and bank and credit card account numbers.
- Complete a Polly Klaas® Foundation ID/DNA Document for your child, including a color photograph. Update it every six months.
- File or register a certified copy of the custody order in the non-custodial parent's state. This notifies the courts that a valid order has been made and must be enforced without modification. Contact your local family court for advice on how to do this.
- Obtain a passport for your child and notify the passport office that your child is not to leave the country without your written permission. Learn how to restrict your child's passport through the U.S. Department of State.
To keep your children safe, it is ALSO important that you:
- Keep the lines of communication open between you and your children.
- Teach your children their full name(s) and your full name. Older children should be able to easily recite their full address, city, state and country, as well as telephone number with area code.
- Practice using both a private phone and pay phone, and how to place long distance calls. Help children understand how and when to dial 9-1-1 and 0 for Operator, and that these calls are free, even from a pay phone
- AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL is something you can easily do every day: Be sure that your child knows that you love him/her and if anything should ever separate you that you will do everything you can to be together again. For your child’s well-being, this should be conveyed without mentioning, or accusing, the other parent of being a potential threat.
WHEN THE KIDNAPPER LEAVES THE COUNTRY
Sometimes an abductor will take the child out of the United States. For the most accurate and up-do-date information on international abductions and the policies of specific countries, the Polly Klaas® Foundation recommends the following US State Department, Office of Children's Issues resources:
The Polly Klaas® Foundation has compassionate and professional case workers who can help you prevent family abduction and recover a child who has been abducted by a family member. If you have any reason to believe you and your child are in danger of family abduction, contact us immediately at 1-800-587-4357. If you feel you need urgent intervention, please call 911 first and then contact the Polly Klaas Foundation.
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