Michael Siverling's debut mystery, Sterling Inheritance, won St. Martin's 2002 Best First Private Eye Novel Contest.

In "real life," Mr. Siverling is Supervising Criminal Investigator for Sacramento, California. His website is at http://www.midnight-investigations.com. Direct correspondence to Michael Siverling or Editor.

             One of the most horrifying events that can occur to a parent is the disappearance of a child. These cases strike a chord in our national conscience. Everyone knows the names of these children: Polly Klass, Elizabeth Smart, Megan Kanka, Jessica Lunsford, and others. But there is another kind of child abduction that garners far less attention and concern: When a child is taken by his or her own parent.

             When a child is removed and concealed by a parent, whether or not in violation of a court issued custody order, then the left-behind parent turns to local law enforcement to help him or her find and recover that child. Other non-law enforcement agencies often assist in these recovery efforts. Agencies such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Vanished Children’s Alliance often provide valuable resources to aid law enforcement officers in their efforts. If an abduction cases facts' merit (such as cases where the child is taken across State lines or out of the United States), the Federal Bureau of Investigation and InterPol may become involved.

               But questions remain: How seriously should we take this situation? After all, the child is with one of the parents, right? And how often does this sort of thing happen, anyway?

          According to the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Throwaway Children, in the year 1999, there were 203,900 reported incidents of parental child abduction.

             More than two hundred thousand reported incidents of parental child abduction.

             And that is in the United States alone. But the raw numbers can never do justice to the life-changing events thrust upon a child who is forced or coerced by one of the parents to enter into the life of a fugitive. These children suffer the alienation of losing contact with the rest of their family and friends, miss their educational stability, and often are faced with privation and lack of needed medical attention. On top of all of this, these children are often co-opted by the abduction parent into being willing participants in their own abduction. How? Most frequently, the abducting parent simply lies to the child. In cases I’ve worked, the abducted children have been told all about the “justification” of why the abducting parent has fled with them. In the more extreme cases, the abducting parent will tell the child that the left-behind parent has died, as in a case I worked where the mother of the children fled with them to Germany.

             And in all of the cases I’ve worked, there have always been accusations of abuse leveled by the abducting parent toward the left-behind parent.  In other words, the abducting parent routinely offers charges of child as a reason for the criminal act of abduction. As a matter of course, all of these allegations are investigated, often with the assistance of Child Abuse Social Workers, to ascertain whether or not there is a foundation of truth in these accusations.

             Which brings me to my final point: Parental Child Abduction cases seem to lack the concern and interest that the other forms of child-oriented crimes have. And yet, with the physical and psychological trauma that the children have forced upon them, in the cases I’ve seen, to me these are not simple cases of abduction.

            They're clearly another form of child abuse.

Copyright 2005 by Michael Siverling