Concerns of Mothers

Parenting Kidnapping: A New Form of Child Abuse

By Dorothy S. Huntington, Ph.D.

“The number of children stolen each year has until this time been estimated at 100,000 per year, but there is new and very tragic evidence that this number is under-reported by at least three to four hundred percent."

"A new national study of the parental kidnapping of children shows that there are many more such abductions then previously believed. The study estimates that here are at least 313,000 incidents a year, possibly as many as 626,000. The research was conducted by Richard Gelles, a professor of sociology at the University of Rhode Island and a lecturer in pediatrics at Harvard University Medical School."

"Agopian (1981) found that the perpetrators in his sample of 91 cases from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office between July 1977 and June 1978 were 70% male…Elliot (1980) found in his content analysis of news stories that the perpetrators were 60% male."

"Particularly for fathers, the desire for revenge and vengeance is overwhelming…The abduction is used as a club to force the estranged spouse to return to the marriage, or as a ‘getting even’ with the custodial parent."


http://www.hiltonhouse.com/articles/Child_abuse_huntington.txt

I thought it would be interesting to post some excerpts from this woman's research here. Now I know this is old news to some of us, but I couldn't find more recent numbers available. But it's interesting anyway the old numbers especially since over 20 years ago MOST of the abductors were men YET most of the parents featured over the past five years on the FBI parental abduction website are women.

So have the number switched?

Or is there some sort of selective screeniing going on here? Since if more men then women are abducting children, we need to see that reflected in the FBI website.

People need to have a clear sense of what is going on regarding this issue.

Additionally, another puzzlement is that I have never heard any womens' group addressing this issue. Womens' groups appear to be more focused on issues such as gay marriage, even through many women in America don’t know one gay guy never mind two who wish to get married. Yet faithfully every month I get an e-newsletter from womens' groups with the gay marriage issue prominently displayed.

I guess the question is who and what is funding these womens groups and whether or not these groups are required to be focusing on issues that impact women lives? Instead of spending all their time focusing on other unrelated, but trendy causes that get them noticed by the media, maybe these groups should return to their roots and worry about the issues that women worry about such as their children being abducted, which happens on a fairly regular basis today to a rather large group of mothers.

AND since most women eventually become mothers, perhaps there needs to be a reallocation of priorities here...