Suchergebnisse

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 even death of children. 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, politic

In states such as Illinois, courts invoke the Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution to protect parental kidnappers who have already been held in contempt of court from subsequent prosecution under state child kidnapping laws. State courts should not apply the Double Jeopardy Clause to protect parental kidnappers; instead, they should follow the example of the Ohio state courts by recognizing that contempt of court and child kidnapping are not the same crime for double jeopardy purposes. The many differences between the crimes of contempt and parental kidnapping, the disparity between sanctions delivered by the court for contempt and outlined by state legislatures for child kidnapping, and the inability of contempt sanctions to adequately punish parental kidnappers for the harm inflicted on their children, all provide reasons why the Double Jeopardy Clause should not apply to contempt of court and child kidnapping. This recommendation will help state courts better deter and punish parental kidnapping.

A national U.S. survey of 371 parents whose children were abducted by the other parent reveals an over-representation of interracial and cross-cultural (international) marriages among the families involved in parental kidnapping. This article reviews the literature concerning marital conflict, particularly over childrearing, in intermarried families. It next presents the methodology and relevant findings of the national study of parental kidnapping. The final section explores implications of the literature and research findings for professionals providing psychosocial services to interracial and cross-cultural couples.