FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? OJJDP
THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2001?????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 202/307-0703
????????????????????????????? CHARACTERISTICS
OF PARENTS MORE LIKELY TO
???????????? ABDUCT
THEIR CHILDREN ANNOUNCED BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justice Department?s
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has identified
key factors that point to a greater likelihood that parents will abduct their
children.? Published in a new bulletin,
these factors include prior threats, a belief the child is being abused,
parental psychological disorders, the end of a multi-national marriage and
alienation from the legal system.
OJJDP also makes a number of recommendations
to reduce these risks, such as parent legal education programs and efforts to
increase parents? access to legal representation.
?When a parent abducts his or her children,
it wreaks immeasurable havoc not only on the children, but also on the other
parent and entire community,? said OJJDP Acting Administrator John J.
Wilson.? ?We can do a better job of
keeping children safe if we get this information out to the community and let
them know what to watch for.?
According to Early Identification of Risk
Factors for Parental Abduction, parents who suspect that the other parent
is abusing or neglecting their children, whether or not it is true, and who
also have support from other family members pose a greater risk of abducting
their children.? This risk increases if
the suspecting parents themselves were abused or neglected as children.
Parents who feel disconnected from the legal
system also are more likely to abduct their children.? This alienation can stem from a variety of sources, such as poor
education, prior negative experiences with the legal system or insufficient
financial resources.
To reduce the risk for parents abducting
their children, many steps can be taken, including:
?
Improving
enforcement of child custody orders;
?
Investigating
child abuse and neglect cases in a thorough and prompt manner;
?
Ensuring that
custody orders and visitation procedures protect children;
?
Adapting parent
education and custody mediation to meet the needs of multi-cultural families;
?
Improving
coordination between law enforcement and social services in child abuse and
neglect cases, and
?
Establishing
unified family courts that provide for systematic case management and
coordinated decisionmaking.
Early Identification of Risk Factors for
Parental Abduction is based
on three studies of child abduction cases in California and one study of
intervention programs for parents identified as being at high risk for
abducting.
Copies of the Early Identification of Risk
Factors for Parental Abduction, as well as information about other OJJDP
publications, programs and conferences, are available through the OJJDP Website
at www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org and from OJJDP's Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse,
Box 6000, Rockville, Maryland 20857. The toll-free number
is 1-800/638-8736.
Information about other Office of Justice
Programs (OJP) bureaus and program offices is available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov.? Media should contact OJP?s Office of
Congressional and Public Affairs at 202/307-0703.? ????????
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OJJDP 01062