Parental Kidnapping in America: A History

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In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice reported an average of 200,000 cases of parental kidnapping each year. More than just the byproduct of a nasty custody dispute, parental kidnapping–defined as one parent taking his or her child and denying access of the child to the other parent–represents a form of child abuse that has sometimes resulted in the sale, abandonment, and death of children. While international parental abductions have garnered major headlines in recent years, domestic abductions accounting for the majority of parental kidnappings remain mostly unpublicized, obscuring the prevalence of this criminal practice. This candid exploration of parental kidnapping in America from the eighteenth century to the present clarifies many misconceptions and reveals how the external influences of American social, political, legal, and religious culture can exacerbate family conflict, creating a social atmosphere ripe for abduction.