Child Abduction is kidnapping of a minor and it implies two legal categories, which happen for different reasons: abduction by a stranger and abduction by a member of child’s family.

Abduction or child theft by strangers is kidnapping for criminal purposes. Stranger does not necessarily mean that the person is unknown to the child, but that is someone from outside the family. Motives for this kind of abduction vary: it can be for ransom, for slavery, illegal adoption, human trafficking and organ trading, and murder. Abductions of this kind happen more often than reported.

Parental child abduction most commonly happens during parents’ separation or after it, when one of the parents removes the child from the other one because of an awaited child-custody proceeding or fear of domestic violence. These abductions can be within a city, a region, a country or international.

International child abduction comes to pass when a parent or a family member flees a country with a child or children breaking a custody decree. These cases are among the most difficult ones to solve as a result of different international jurisdictions. In order to ease dealing with this kind of problems, some rules were established in the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the European Convention. Tracking and retrieving children from a non-Hague Convention country is much more difficult. Cases of international child abduction increase every year due to an increase of international marriages. Cultural differences can play a big role in these situations, especially those in child rearing, position of mother and father in family, involvement of extended family in immediate family’s life, role of the family in social life, social structure, religion, etc. Generally, abductors do not appreciate child’s relation with the other parent and often justify their actions as helping the child. In some cases, abductions happen as a part of revenge or as a consequence of some unresolved family matter, and high percentage of children are told that the other parent had abandoned them. International abductions may result with child’s losing a connection to the other half of the family, complete identification with a new culture that can cause loss of the former language, sense of former nationality and even their own name. This can lead to an emotional trauma, depression, loss of community or fear of abandonment. Advantages and benefits of modern-day transportation make it much easier for an abductor to commit the crime and this is also one of the things that affect the increase of international abductions. Similar to this crime is retention, the case of taking a child abroad on a trip and not returning him to a home country.

A common delusion is that children are not in danger in these cases because abductors are members of their families, when in reality, it can result with child’s numerous psychological traumas and at times, they even suffer physical injuries. It is a violation of children’s rights and parental abduction is marked as child abuse.