Family Abductors: Descriptive Profiles and Preventive Interventions

Parental abduction encompasses a broad array of illegal behaviors that involves one parent taking, detaining, concealing, or enticing away his or her child from the parent having custodial access. When the abducted parent intends to permanently alter custodial access by hiding the child or removing the child to another locale, the effects on the family and the obstacles to the child's recovery are compounded. This document describes the common characteristics of abducting parents and profiles parents at risk for abducting their children. Constructive interventions are offered for each of the six profiles provided. It draws on research conducted in the San Francisco Bay area and several reasons are given as to why this area was used. The profiles provide information that, along with the facts of a given case, may indicate that prevention interventions should be considered. The interventions described are current standards of professional and court practice for the provisions of legal and psychological counseling, mediation, and custody evaluation services. (Contains 16 references.) (JDM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.