When a parent without visitation rights or the custodial capacity to hold or keep a marital child removes that child from the custodial care of the parent that does have the right to hold and keep the child and does that removal of the child without the knowledge or consent of the rightful custodial parent then that parent will have performed an act of “parental kidnapping” of his own marital child. There is no set range of space concerning the actual act of removal; it can be across the State or just a few feet from the custodial parent as long as it serves to remove the child from the custody of the rightfully custodial parent. It can be for a few minutes or continuous years on end as long as the non-custodial parent removed the child from the custody of the parent with a legal right to have custody of the child. This act of removing the child intentionally and without permission of the rightfully custodial parent is child custodial interference, kidnapping and child concealment and is a felony in at least forty States prosecutable by federal and State laws.
Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA)
The Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act is a federal law enacted in 1980 to address situations with noncustodial parents and inconsistent State entered child custody orders. The law provides penalties for parental kidnapping and requires States to recognize the child custody judgments and orders entered by courts in other States concerning in State children instead of entering a second order, possibly an adversely inconsistent order, concerning the same child or children.
International Child Abduction Remedies Act
The International Child Abduction Remedies Act is a federal law that enables the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of the International Child Abduction to be followed in the United States. The Hague Convention is an international agreement between the United States and forty foreign nations “for the purpose of providing the prompt return wrongfully removed or retained in any participating country and ensuring that the rights of the custody and access under the law of one country are effectively respected in another country.” Jurisdictional issues and common child custody rules and procedures for determining child custody are resolved by this law in situations where custody disputes have crossed international borders.
Getting Legal Help
If you or a member of your family has had a child removed from your custody or if you have intentionally removed a child from the custodial parent’s care for any reason it would be very important to contact a divorce attorney and discuss with him the circumstances of the child’s removal from court ordered custodial situation. A lawyer will maintain all client confidences concerning the child and the individual improperly retaining the child.
