Conference quokka::non_custodial_parents

18.0. "More parents abducting kids, FBI says" by CSC32::K_JACKSON (Better living through alchemy!) Tue Mar 13 1990 00:39

   The following article appeared in the Colorado Springs Gazette 
Telegraph under State news on 3/12/90:


	      MORE PARENTS ABDUCTING KIDS, FBI SAYS
		Secret networks reportedly assist


  DENVER - The breakups of more and more U.S. families and a secret network
that helps parents who abduct their children have flooded the Denver FBI
office with parental kidnapping cases, officials say.

  The FBI's Denver office used to handle about 25 parental abduction cases
a year but has investigated about 70 such cases in the last 18 months,
said Bob Pence, special agent in charge of the FBI's Colorado and Wyoming
operations.

  Pence said more families are falling apart, and Census Bureau figures seem
to agree.  The figures show that 12 percent of all U.S. marriages last less
than a year and 30% last less than 3 years.

  "We have a very serious problem developing, with the ultimate victims being
the children," Pence stated.

  And abduction can leave a lasting and traumatic mark on children, one
expert said.

  "There's a loss of friends, a change of schools," said Dr. Jeff Dolgan,
a psychologist at Children's Hospital.  "I think it makes for some scars."

  Abductions usually involve a non-custodial parent taking a child from
an ex-spouse who has legal custody.  But Pence said some fugitive parents
are getting help from a network of clandestine groups that help the parents
relocate and obtain new identities.  He described the secret network as
"well-organized" and operated by "people who have somehow come to the 
belief that (parents) are taking the children because the custodial parent
abuses the child - without checking the facts."

  The majority of abducted children are tracked down through routine
investigative work, such as interviews and record checks.

  "Normally, these people are't experienced thugs or interstate thieves,"
Pence said.  "We don't consider these kidnappings.  If one of the natural 
parents takes the child, technically, it can't be kidnapping."

  However, parental abduction does consitute a felony violation of Colorado
custody laws.