The quick conclusion to Clark Rockefeller's abduction of his daughter Reigh to Baltimore ended what could have been a protracted and potentially harmful voyage for the young girl. While abduction of any length poses an emotional and physical threat to a child's well-being, the lengthier the abduction, the greater the threat, regardless of whether the abductor is the father or the mother. I have spent the last year working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to study the long-term impact of abduction on children who were taken by a parent many years ago. The people I have interviewed are now ages 21 to 53 and were missing as recently as four years ago and as long ago as 40 years ago. They are men and women of different races and religions who were taken by fathers and mothers and grew up in hiding all over the United States and in Europe.
Assessing the damage of family abduction
One woman was born overseas and taken to the U.S. by her father and did not see her mother for over 10 years.
One man and his brother were taken by their father to Europe for 18 months and placed in a boarding school before Interpol tracked them down.
Another woman was taken, along with her two younger siblings, by her mother and maternal grandmother when she was 9 and was on the run for three years before being rescued during a dramatic police raid.
A different young woman was taken by her mother and stepfather when she was 12. They moved around for over a year and settled in a community out West. When she told her boyfriend she was on the run, her stepfather found out and made plans to go into hiding again. She refused to go with them and was put on a plane back to her father.
Another young man told me he called the national center when, after five years in hiding, he was tired of concealing his identity and couldn't get a driver's license or attend proms as he was not enrolled in school.
Why would a child who is capable of escaping an abducting parent not do so? Many of those I interviewed said they feared their abducting father or mother would end up in jail and that they would lose contact with them. In a few of the cases, the person I interviewed said that once they went on the run, the high level of conflict related to divorce ended - they were no longer a ping pong ball between their parents' divorce paddles. That was a tremendous relief after years of court visits and mental health evaluations. One man noted how much better his younger brother started to fare emotionally when he was no longer the target of two warring parents. He decided not to turn in his father because of this positive change in his brother.
