5,887,000 Children Abducted Since 1980

By

Ken Connelly

Author:

Throwing Stones; Parental Child Abduction through the Eyes of a Child

 Florida is at the center of a landmark legislative decision.  Carolyn Vlk, a concerned mother trying to prevent parental child abduction authored what is now known as Florida House Bill 787, the Child Abduction Prevention Act.  Over the past three years Ms. Vlk has painstakingly drafted legislation similar to the California, Synclair-Cannon Parental Child Abduction Prevention Act.  With the help of Florida House Representative Darryl Ervin Rouson and co-sponsors Representatives Bill Heller and Elaine J. Schwartz, HB 787 is set to be heard in the Public Safety & Domestic Security Policy Committee on Monday, 22, 2010. 

Governor Crist’s office, which reviews current legislation, has begun to monitor HB 787.  Having the Governor behind Ms. Vlk and Representative Rouson’s Child Abduction Prevention Act can only send a clear message to Florida’s citizens, that their Governor supports the protection and prevention of Florida’s share of the 203,000 annual reported parental kidnappings in the United States.  This number reported to the Department of Justice varies from 200,000 to over 350,000 annual reports.  When HB 787 is presented to Governor Crist, it is my hope and the hope of Florida’s 5,000,000 children under the age of eighteen, that he will sign HB 787 into law and enact Florida’s Child Abduction Prevention Act. 

What is amazing about the movement behind HB 787 is the breaking down of political party lines and political groups.  Whether or not a Floridian is Democrat, Republican or Independent, the need and realization to protect our children has brought everyone to the table to pass HB 787.   Parents like author of HB 787, Ms. Carolyn Vlk, have looked beyond political ideology to embrace a real tragedy in her state and in the federal laws; the prevention of non-stranger based child abduction. 

Every 2.58 minutes in the United States a child is abducted by their parent.  Many would and will argue that when a parent abducts a child, they are never put in harm’s way since it is their mother or father who has stolen them.  Nothing could be farther from the truth!  The United States does not have a singular agency that records Parental Child Abduction murders or abuse both domestically and internationally.  Instead, information is gathered at the state level.  The State Department does keep track of International cases if the parent is an American citizen, but only rudimentary data.  Neither the FBI nor Interpol will look for your child once they have been abducted abroad to a Hague nation.

Since my own abduction on October 10, 1980, a staggering 5,887,000 children have experienced some form of parental child abduction or alienation.  When asking anyone on the street, most individuals know of at least one person who has heard of a parental kidnapping story; making parental kidnapping the single and widest crime to remain in the dark. 

When compared to stranger based child abduction there is no comparison in numbers.  One of the arguments is that stranger based child abduction and parental child abduction is comparable to ‘apples’ and ‘oranges’.  From my own experience as an orange, when I was returned home to my mother I had lost all forms of trust and to this day struggle with identity of what family is and is not. Whereas when a child is abducted by a stranger (apples), they always trust mommy and daddy are there waiting with open arms.  In the end the child is victimized and the scars remain with them forever.  Constitutionally, we have an obligation to protect those who cannot be protected and viewing children as chattel is not in our great nation’s creed or ideology.   HB 787 will close the gap and allow the judicial system the power to prevent child abduction before it occurs.