1. For information on NISMART 2, see Hanson, 2000.

2. Issues in Resolving Cases of International Child Abduction (NCJ 182790) is available from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse. Call 800–638–8736 or order it online at https://puborder.ncjrs.org/secure/register/register.asp.

3. The sample for this study was based on a random sampling of National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cases. Many parents in the original random sample could not be located. Some of these parents may have moved to prevent the abductor from finding them.

4. For more recent information on this subject, consult The Criminal Justice System’s Response to Parental Abduction (NCJ 186160). The background information presented here is meant to supplement the more detailed information in that document.

5. It is important to note that these results reflect the parents’ perception of the police response and may not reflect the actual police response (Plass, Finkelhor, and Hotaling, 1995). Police were not interviewed in this study.

6. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, ratified by the United States in 1998, is an international treaty currently in effect in 43 countries. (For the most recent list of countries that have ratified the Hague Convention, see www.travel.state.gov/hague_list.html.) It serves to simplify and expedite the return process when children have been abducted internationally. The Convention’s implementing procedures can be found in the International Remedies Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 11601 et seq.). In 1993, the United States also passed the International Parental Kidnapping Act (18 U.S.C. § 1204), making the abduction or retention of a child from the United States a Federal felony.