Child Abduction: Overview of the various aspects

A recently conducted social survey in the US accounted for the fact that the rate of kidnapping of children has enhanced drastically within the last few years. The picture is no different in other parts of the globe. Today, people boast of achieving a great advancement in technology and materialistic prosperity.

With such a background, the rising rate of child abduction is truly an irony. This is certainly establishing a sharp downfall of the human values. How one can boast of materialistic progress, while people can delve into activities like abducting a child? As such, the entire world has to collaborate to eliminate this peril from the society.

The question is, how to get rid of child abduction? No matter what it takes to accomplish this mission, this is to be executed at any cost. As the first significant step in that regard, a complete knowledge about various aspects related to the child abduction is needed.

One has to know how the law defines child abduction, the root causes beyond such instances, the prevailing laws that prevent such instances as well as the probable measures to prevent such incidents. Paragraphs underneath shall throw light on various aspects related to this topic.

What does child abduction mean?

Child abduction is an offense that involves wrongful removal and/or retention as well as unwanted detention and concealing of a baby or a child. The term Abduction implies the measures to take away an individual, either by force, or through persuasion as well as by the means of violence and open force. Child abduction can be:

Parental Abduction: these types of instances will involve the participation of one or both the parents for the abduction of the child. Though, it might sound strange, the fact is, in the majority of the instances, abduction of a child involves some involvement of the parents.
Abduction by strangers: as you can make it from the name itself,it these cases, the abduction will have the involvement of the strangers.

As such, Child abduction inevitably involves 2 social and legal categories that differs in between them in terms of the perpetrating contexts.

Now, whatever may be the type of the abduction, the fact is, it emerged one of the major challenges before the Human society. Though, there is a plethora of national and international laws to prevent and punish the instances of child abduction, however, it has never performed well to prevent such unwanted instances.

Abduction of a child is a complete non-compliance with the concepts like Human and child rights. As such, a holistic and honest effort is needed on a global level to safeguard the child from such instances, before it becomes too late.

The society of Humans will not have any right for taking pleasure for materialistic advancements, unless these instances are completely prevented. After all, the advanced and modern society has more responsibility for safeguarding the rights of children and offer them the right ambiance that will support their holistic development.

What are the key causes of Child abduction?

Kidnapping of children has become a major challenge to the society at a global perspective. Though the rates are much higher in the under-developed nations, the fact is, the developed nations are not training behind significantly.

There can be various reasons and factors that might drive an individual or a group to abduct a child. If the instances of child abduction are to be prevented to the complete extent, first and foremost, you need to be well aware of the common causes beyond it. Likewise, you need to have a precise idea about the various types of abduction of a child.

This knowledge will enable you to take the adequate measures that will safeguard the little angels to the complete extent. Remember, the government across the globe and common people has to collaborate and fight hand-in-hand, if one desires to make this planet a safer and a better place for children.

Here come the common causes that might be accounted for child abduction:

Unemployment: facts and figures account for the fact that, the rates of child abduction are much higher in countries, wherein unemployment is towards the higher sides. As people are finding it impossible to earn their bread and butter by the right and legitimate manner, they are looking for alternative ways to make money.

Though unfortunately, a significant count of these folks has identified child abduction as a way to mane money. They will kidnap a baby and demand ransom to make money.
Poverty: another factor that is likely to be a factor for child abduction is that of poverty. It has been found that majorly, individuals, living under the poverty line are driven towards crime to make up the deficit of cash flow. They have identified children as the soft target for their criminal acts. As such, they often try to abduct children for ransom, assuming that it will bring them lump sum money at a go.
Illiteracy: another finding from research about child abduction is that, it is more frequent in countries, wherein the rate of illiteracy is abnormally high. Again, uneducated people are more prone to get involved in these instances, directly and indirectly. An uneducated person will hardly have the sense of judgement that will burn his/her conscience for delving into such acts.

Likewise, even if the kidnapper is educated, he/she is likely to target the uneducated mass as supporters to accomplish their mission. Illiteracy is the major challenge in the path of getting a suitable employment. Unemployment, in turn will trigger poverty that will lead a person to delve into criminal acts like kidnapping to earn his/her bread and butter.
Religious factors: though it may sound strange, apparently, today, religious biases have been one of the major factors beyond the rising rate of abduction. People are getting biased and blinded to an extent that they don’t hesitate to abduct children from the community of their religious rivals.
Greed: a person may be educated, earns handful and is not that much “religious” to kidnap children from the houses of their religious rivals. Still, such people are getting into these acts. For them, it is the stimulus of earning instant money that will support them to lead a more lavish lifestyle that is driving them to get involved in such activities.

You may say, these people are never contended with what they have, and their greed is pushing them to do anything, so long it comes good to fetch them the money they want. Their education and financial resources have made them so influential that these criminals are almost impossible to be tracked.
Politics: child abduction is likely to have some tinge of political motive beyond it. Politicians often invests for abducting the children of their rivals and opponents. Likewise, a political group can abduct a child or a few to demand the government to agree with what they demand, even if such demands are baseless and impossible to be accepted. In the developed and developing nations, political factors beyond child abduction are most prominent.
Revenge: a person may even abduct a child for taking revenge against their rivals. Across the globe, such instances are very common.

The possible factor beyond the abduction of a child is not limited to the instances stated above. Sometimes, there can be other factors beyond such incidents as well. For instance, especially the gild child is likely to be abducted within an intention of sexual abuse. You will come across such reports in the newspaper on a daily basis. Likewise, some perverted people abduct a child with the intention to torture these little angels.

From the discussion made above, there are various political-economical- Psychological factors that can drive an individual for abducting child. As such, as a caring and responsible parent, you need to ensure the security and safety of your child from all the probable aspects.

How common is Child Abduction?

Today, at a global perspective, child abduction has been one of the most common types of crimes. You will find in any police station across the globe that they are handling a number of cases of child kidnapping on a regular basis.

The rate of child abduction has risen significantly all around the globe, with the African and Asian countries recording the maximum instances, however, you cannot give a clean chit to the developed nations.

For instance, US records one of the highest rates of child abduction over the last few years. The picture is not different in the European countries either. So, there are substantial evidences to prove that, child abduction is probably the crime that has become more common than any other criminal activities.

The most common instance of child abduction is that of the parental abduction. A survey conducted in the US accounted for 200,000 such instances in the year 2010 in the US alone. The rising rate of divorce is one of the key factors that paves the way for parental abduction.

When a couple breaks away from their marriage, they take it as a matter of ego to get the custody of the child. They think, taking the custody of the child, even if by some unfair means, they can harass and take some revenge over their partners.

There has been instances, wherein one of the parents, after such abduction has taken the child to some other countries. This is done to ensure that the other parent is not getting a chance to claim the custody of the child. As such, the couples, just to take unfair advantage or to win the fight of Ego over his/her partner, slaughters the usual right of the child to enjoy the company of both the parents.

The fact is, parental child abduction is more common in the developed nations, compared with the rate in this regard in the developing and under-developed countries.

Another form of child abduction that involves the strangers, has risen over the last few years at a very drastic pace as well. A stranger is likely to abduct a child for one or various reasons as discussed above. The rate of child abduction by strangers is much higher in the African, Asian and other under- developed countries.

In such countries, some people have done it the only way to earn money, maybe for their living or to finance their greed. On the whole, stranger child abduction will always have come evil and criminal motives and often it results in rape and other abuses of the child, either mentally or physically or from both these perspectives.

Though various national and international laws have been implemented, however, these laws hardly scares the offenders from delving into similar acts. This has emerged as a major challenge before the governments in countries all around the globe.

Child abduction for human trafficking and slavery

While speaking about child abduction by strangers, a special mention is to be given about human trafficking. Especially the girl child from poor and underprivileged countries are most commonly targeted in this regard. In some instances, even their parents are selling one of their children to these criminals, who in turns sell the abducted children to operators of sex rackets.

Likewise, in the middle east countries, these abducted children are sold as slaves. In Sudan, more than 30,000 children were abducted between 2005-2007 for child slavery. Again, in Nigeria, more than 50000 children in the age group of 8 and 14 years were either abducted,or were sold between 2010-2015.

In the past, there has been instances, wherein children were abducted to serve as soldiers. For example, thousands of children got abducted during the World Wars, as well as during the wars of independence in Congo, India, Myanmar, Somalia as well as in other African ad Asian countries.

Strangers abducting children for raising

It was very rightly stated that facts are sometimes stranger that fictions. There has been thousands of instances from all around the globe, wherein a stranger abducted a child, just to raise the baby.

Usually, individuals who are not having their own children, and they fail to meet the conditions for the adoption of a child legally, delves into these measures. Though, they might have a soft feeling beyond participation in these activities, for sure such activities cannot be justified by any means.

In this regard, even some child rehab centers and homes have played some illegal and unsolicited roles. There have been complaints from all around the globe that these homes were taking extravagant donation against illegal grants for child adoption. Likewise, some of these child homes have been accused of selling the orphans to the parties from the prostitutions or agents for child slaves.

Can parents abduct their own child?

Does that sound impossible? If so, you are living in a fool’s paradise. The fact is, parents have more involvement in child abduction than the strangers. It is for the reason, abduction is not about snatching a child. Rather, unusual and illegal retention and detention of a child would also come into the same category. As such, parents can never be given an absolute clean chit in this regard.

While speaking about abduction by parents,.it will involve all the instances of hiding, taking, or concealing the movements of a child by any means for reasons whatsoever. Such instances happen most commonly, while the parents get into a divorce or separation.

For example, the law will consider it to be an instance of child abduction by a father, if he is snatching the little children from his/her mother, against her consent. It is for the reason, till one attains the age of adulthood, the mother will have more rights over the ward. As such, if the father conceals the movement of the child by any means, he is to face the charge of child abuse.

Likewise, even a lady can be charged for abducting her own child. There is a terminology known as Malicious Mother Syndrome. This refers to a certain set of behavior by a mother, when she becomes vengeful towards her partner, while the couple are going through the divorce proceedings. In these instances, a mother will punish the child with a motive to take revenge over her partner.

This is one of the most common instances of child abduction happening across the country. Remember, a lady is liable for legal proceedings, if she is delving into these acts.

How long can you go to jail for Child Abduction?

As the rate of child abduction is rising sharply across the globe, countries from all around the globe has framed codes of law to punish the offenders. The provision of law in this regard may vary between one country to another.

Speaking on a general note, the legal code has different sets of punishments for parents and strangers for having involvements in such instances. On the whole, the governments in various countries are working at national and international levels to eliminate these perils to the complete extent.

For instance,in the US, parents can be jailed for a year for having any sort of involvement in instances of child abduction. Likewise, if relatives are caught for involvements in these instances, can be jailed for 6 months.

In cases of abduction of strangers, the offender can be punished by various other means. It can result in imprisonment for several months to years, as well as the law can impose penalty of any hefty amount. Likewise, the offender can be sentenced to both these punishments, depending on the actual scenario and the standing of the situation on a case to case basis.

File a report on missing Child

What are the probable ways to prevent Child Abduction?

The following instances can offer the most suitable solutions to the instances of child abduction:

Training Anti-child abduction agents: one of the best ways to prevent child abduction is to strengthen the systems and agents that combats child abduction. This might include the training to the agents as well as constantly updating the framework for preventing these instances.

Remember, the criminals are adopting modern technology for abducting children, and as such, boosting the knowledge of the child abduction combating forces to win over the challenges.
Monitoring the acts and endeavors of the police: another thing to do in this regard is to monitor the activities of the police. This will ensure that the protector of the law are never supporting the criminals for executing these activities.
The offenders should be punished seriously: if the instances of child abduction are to be prevented, offenders should be punished seriously and without any mercy. This will create a panic in the minds of the prospective offenders before they delve into these actions.

Fortunately, the governments from all around the globe are collaborating for prevention of these instances at the national and international arena.
Job creation: as stated above, unemployment is one of the major factors beyond the instances of child abduction. As such, the government has to create enough of jobs so that, people never delve into these activities.
Promote education: child abduction cannot be prevented, unless illiteracy problems prevail. As such, the government needs to foster education that will promote the judgement on people for not delving into these instances.

Once the level of literacy rises, people will surely give a second thought before delving into activities related to child abduction, either directly or indirectly by any means.

Child abduction can have manifold factors beyond it and the government and the local people needs to collaborate on a local, national and international levels to fight against these threats. As a caring parent, you need to take adequate protection of your child against all the probable threats.

The society has to ensure the rights and interest of the child that will support their holistic development as an individual. The elimination of this peril will certainly make the world a better place for the children.

Come forward and make the maximum contribution that you can make for the elimination of these threats. CWP

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