AST August 2018 Magazine Aug 2018 Final (8.14.18) | Page 38

Volume 26
Augus 2018 Edition
State laws custody orders from another country.
Family abduction is recognized as a crime
in every state, although individual state
criminal laws vary widely. The Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act (UCAPA)
was introduced in 2006 to help courts identify chil-
dren at risk of domestic and international abduction
and provide numerous prevention measures a court
can incorporate into a custody order.
Under state law family abduction is described
by a variety of names including custodial inter-
ference, custody deprivation, child stealing and
parental kidnapping.
More than 10 states have adopted the UCAPA as state
law and several other states have pending UCAPA
legislation or enacted their own abduction preven-
tion statutes.
The basic elements in the state crime of family abduc-
tion are typically the wrongful taking or retention of a For a comprehensive summary of state statutes and
child in violation of a court order or other law, without case law related to family abductions and missing
a valid defense to make the conduct legal.
children see NCMEC’s guidebook titled Family
Abduction: Prevention and Response and refer
For a comprehensive summary of state criminal custo- specifically to the state-by-state legal appendix,
dial interference laws, refer to compilation of “Paren- which also includes international abduction preven-
tal Kidnapping Statutes” located on the website of the tion information.
National District Attorneys Association (NDDA).
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforce-
ment Act (UCCJEA) has been adopted as state law by
nearly every state and territory in the U.S.
Other resources
For additional information about issues relating
to international family abductions, you may want
to review the following resources:
The UCCJEA provides clearer standards for the exer-
cise of jurisdiction over child custody cases among the
states and provides a specific, effective mechanism for • State Department Office of Children’s Issues
enforcement of out-of-state custody orders, including • Annual Reports on Compliance with the
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