Parental Child Abduction – Dominican Republic

April 20, 2013

As a signatory of to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the Dominican Republic is responsible to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained. Dominican is presently retaining several U.S. children for over a year without a return order from the courts. Meanwhile fit and loving parents are denied all contact with their children.

Through a well-funded Department of Human Services, the United States is well equipped to prevent any return exposing a child to physical or psychological harm or placing the child in an intolerable situation. Additionally, the U.S. has the infrastructure and resources to provide desperately needed services to by children and parents. In contrast, the Dominican Republic burdened with education problems, a high rate of child abuse, and domestic violence. It is more likely that a child would be exposed an intolerable situation in the Dominican Republic than the United States. We respectfully request that the Dominican courts promptly hear all Hague return request and provide a respective return order for each child with a habitual U.S. Residence. In Addition, we request that regular contact be allowed between children and parents while awaiting a return order.

 

“Abducted children suffer emotionally and sometimes physically at the hands of abductor-parents. Many children are told the other parent is dead or no longer loves them. Uprooted from family and friends, abducted children often are given new names by their abductor-parents and instructed not to reveal their real names or where they lived before.” (Hoff, 1997)

The Dominican Republic has a long history of human rights violations from refusing birth documents to children born from Haitian parents, police executions, and human trafficking. The Dominican Republic courts have delayed and denied the return of Minor U.S. Citizen illegally removed from the United States. As a signatory of to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the Dominican Republic is responsible to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained.

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Parental Abduction: Father helpless to bring kidnapped sons home from Egypt

April 16, 2013

Source: CNN

(CNN) – Nearly 12 years ago, Michael Shannon sent his two young sons to New York for what he thought would be a weekend visit with their mother.-It would be the last time he saw either one of them.

Nermeen Khalifa, the boys’ mother and Shannon’s ex-wife, took the children to her home country of Egypt, where U.S. citizens have almost no rights in custody battles.

“They were out of the country before we even knew they were gone,” Shannon said. “I went to the apartment to pick them up. It was like it was ransacked.”

Shannon said he knew at that time what had probably happened, but confirmation came a couple weeks later when he got a call from his eldest son.

“I received a call from Adam right after 9/11 and he said: ‘I’m not in America anymore. I’m not even in New York,’ ” Shannon recalled. “He thought New York was a separate country. He was only 4 years old at the time.

“He says, ‘When are you and Pop-Pop coming to get me?’ And I said, ‘As soon as we can.’ “

Fast-forward to 2013, and Shannon had still not seen Adam or younger son Jason, who was 10 months old when his mother took him away. Not even in a photograph.

Adam Shannon was born in 1997. He was 4 years old when his dad last saw him. His mother, Nermeen, is at left.

This long separation has lasted despite court rulings that the sons must be returned to their father. Almost immediately after the boys were taken, Shannon learned how powerless his U.S. court orders and his own country would be in Egypt.

“The bottom line is when we took the American orders to Egypt and asked for them to be — in the lingo of this specialty — domesticated, we are just laughed at,” said Shannon’s attorney, Stephen Cullen.

Shannon turned to the U.S. government for help and found that there was little the State Department could do. Egypt, like many Arab and Muslim countries, is difficult to deal with because it hasn’t signed on to the Hague Convention regarding international child abduction.

Shannon also discovered that his situation was not unique. According to U.S. Ambassador Susan Jacobs, the State Department’s special adviser for children’s issues, there are at least 22 American custody disputes in Egypt.

“I’m not going to speak about a specific case, but all of these cases are sad, bad, horrible cases where one of the parents has been deprived of their children for long periods of time,” Jacobs said. “Half of the cases are over 12 years old, and the others date from 2012. And those are only the cases we know about.”

Exploiting a loophole

Michael Shannon was hesitant to let his children go to New York in 2001.

He had sole custody of Adam after the couple’s separation, and Shannon insisted that Khalifa only visit Adam with a third party present — usually Shannon’s father. And while Khalifa had custody of Jason, she could not take him outside the state of Maryland without Shannon’s consent.

But Shannon reluctantly agreed to the trip when Khalifa’s mother, Asaf, flew in from Cairo and gave Shannon her word that she would watch the boys and return them in four days.

“I said to my father, ‘Well, there is no way she can take him to Egypt,’ ” he recalled. “I have full custody. I have full rights. I have their passports locked in a safe. How could she possibly get them out of the country?”

All of these cases are sad, bad, horrible cases where one of the parents has been deprived of their children for long periods of time.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Jacobs, the State Department’s special adviser for children’s issues

But there was a loophole. Back then, just one parent could simply call the State Department and report that a child’s passport had been lost to get a new one.

That’s what Nermeen Khalifa did, and the children had their Egypt Air tickets purchased in New York by a relative.

Thomas Fleckenstein, the state’s attorney in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, said the facts show that the boys’ grandmother was co-conspirator of an international kidnapping weeks in the making.

“She participated in the planning of the removal of the children from Maryland,” Fleckenstein said. “She participated in the story that was told to the father as to where the children would be in New York, when they would be back. The fact that she was visiting was part of the impetus for the father allowing the children to visit and spend time with the grandmother. And she was actively involved in the helping the children travel to Egypt.”

Shannon turned to an Egyptian court for help, hiring an Egyptian attorney to help him enforce his U.S. custody rights. The case was filed in 2002 but postponed until 2004. It was then postponed another two years, and nothing has happened since.

Officials from the U.S. State Department told him there was nothing they could do.

“The State Department won’t get (photos) because they said the family won’t allow it, it’s intrusive,” Shannon said. “I’ve asked for welfare-wellness (visits), and the embassy writes letters to the family and the family simply refuses them.”

There might have also been another reason for the State Department’s lack of interest.

The boys’ grandfather, Osama Khalifa, was a successful businessman in Egypt who sat on several government boards of then-President Hosni Mubarak. In late 2001 and 2002, in the aftermath of 9/11, the United States was leaning heavily on Egypt and Mubarak for support in the war on terror. It might have been a bad time to bring up the kidnapping of two boys by a family with ties to Mubarak.

Shannon felt very alone. He received a letter from his ex-wife’s sister, Eman, who wrote that the children need to be with their mother because of Islamic law. She also told him to give up –”force and bad tactics will only serve to put you farthest away from your objective.”

The other side of the story

Nermeen Khalifa now lives in Heliopolis, an upscale Cairo neighborhood where her father runs his consulting business.

For years, she has kept her silence, only once agreeing to an interview with an Arab media outlet. But she agreed to talk by phone to CNN.

She has a completely different account of her marriage to Shannon, the boys’ kidnapping and the U.S. court record on the case.

For example, Shannon says his ex-wife had a drinking problem. Maryland police records show she was charged with assaulting her husband and placed on probation, ordered to undergo treatment at an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center.

Michael Shannon says he’s optimistic that his sons will turn 18 and leave Egypt on their own.

But Khalifa says it was Shannon who was the alcoholic and that it was he who kept the family apart. She also puts blame on the American judicial system, which she says is biased and discriminatory against Arab Muslims.

“I left with my kids on my accord to protect myself and my sons,” she said. “(Shannon) is a manipulator, he’s a liar, and I had to leave. The system was against me.”

On September 11, 2001, the very morning that terrorist planes were hitting the World Trade Towers, a Maryland state court issued a warrant for Nermeen Khalifa’s arrest and granted sole custody of her sons to Shannon.

To her, the date of the hearing — and her absence from the court — proves she is a victim of discrimination.

“The ruling happened on 9/11. So what more do you want?” she said. “The judge ruled custody without even hearing me or seeing me or knowing anything about me. He gave (Shannon) immediately custody of both kids.”

Khalifa says she is “tired of this saga” and that Shannon has been making her life miserable.

“If he’s so torn up over the boys, why hasn’t he once tried to send them a birthday card, a Christmas card, anything, let alone come here so that he can see them?” she said.

Shannon says he has tried to talk to his boys every year, but the Khalifa family has refused to put them on the phone. He has also sent e-mails to them, but they go unanswered.

Six years ago, Shannon said, he was allowed to talk to Adam on the phone on his 10th birthday. But it wasn’t the boy he remembered.

“He was, ‘I hope bulldozers knock your house down and they burn your house,’ ” Shannon said. “He’s been watching too much of the Israeli/Palestinian thing.”

When asked why she hasn’t sent a photo to Shannon or even posted one online, Khalifa says no one has asked.

“I’m not keeping (the boys) from their father,” she said. “He can come here anytime and meet them.”

First look in a decade?

Last month, in an undercover van, CNN went to the apartment where Khalifa lives with her two sons. It was Sunday morning, the beginning of the school week in Egypt, and two young men walked out of the building and into a private school bus.

When he was shown this on video, Shannon became emotional. He didn’t recognize his sons.

“If these are my sons, it’s the first time I’ve seen them in 11 years,” he said.

Khalifa said in an e-mail that the boys in the video were not her sons, and then in a phone call, she threatened to sue CNN if the images were broadcast. When asked why she would consider a lawsuit if the photos were not of her sons, she didn’t answer.

Back in the United States, CNN got a phone call from a young man who said he was Adam. He asked that most of the call be off the record, but he did allow CNN to record a quote about his mother: “She’s a great caring mother, very considerate and she does whatever I ask her. If I asked her this moment to take me to the United States and give a ticket, she would proudly do it without hesitation.”

Shannon believes his ex-wife has turned his sons against him. But against all odds, he still remains optimistic that his sons will turn 18 and leave Egypt on their own, learning the truth about their father: that he never stopped loving them and that he never stopped trying to be their dad.

“It’s like they say in Egypt, ‘Inshallah,’ (If) it is God’s will,” he said. “They have to come back to the United States. They are U.S. citizens.”

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Abducted to Greece: Mom battles to rescue son held in Greece by father

February 18 2013

Source: usatoday

Father ignores legally binding divorce decree when he doesn’t send son back to U.S. after a 2011 visit.

Alissa Zagaris hopes an international arrest warrant filed against her ex-husband will allow her to get her son Leo, 12, back home from Greece, where he allegedly has been held against his will since August 2011.

INDIANAPOLIS — In June 2011 Alissa Zagaris drove her then-10-year-old son, Leo, from their home in Noblesville, Ind., to Chicago and put him on a plane for Greece — just as she had done four times before.

It was a long-distance visitation arrangement set forth by the couple’s divorce agreement struck in a Hamilton County, Ind., court. Leo would fly over, spend some time with his father, Nikolaos Zagaris, then fly back.

No big deal.

STORY: N.J. father, son adjusting after Brazil abduction drama

STORY: Documentation for traveling in Europe with children

But on this fifth journey, things went wrong when Leo, now 12, did not come home. His father kept him in Greece — despite the legally binding divorce decree that awarded Alissa custody.

Leo soon would become embroiled in a protracted and messy bureaucratic morass that would involve two nations, the FBI, Interpol, the State Department, international treaties, courts on two continents and one angry and heartbroken mom.

Unlike so many other incidents when one parent keeps a child away from the other, this was not a custody case. This was an international abduction. This, authorities ultimately concluded, was kidnapping.

Nevertheless, prodding authorities in Athens, Washington and Indianapolis to take up her case has been a long, frustrating journey for Zagaris. In December, in a Greek court, Zagaris finally got the chance to tell her side of the story — and she was reunited with her son for a brief, supervised visit.

When she saw Leo for the first time in 19 months, all her fears and anxieties — stemming from his recent comments about hating America — melted away.

“My little boy jumped in my arms,” Zagaris said. “He is this tall on me now (holding a hand up to her shoulder) and he lunged at me and held my hand the whole time. ”We sat together on the couch and I just rubbed his skin. His skin is fine like mine. I always rub his back. And look into his eyes.”

The Dec. 13, 2012, visit lasted for about 45 tense minutes as Nickolaos and his mother watched.

‘Left behind moms’ unite

Many of the more than 350 or so friends and followers of Zagaris’ two Facebook pages — her personal page and one she set up to publicize her son’s kidnapping — call themselves “left behind moms” or “left behind parents.”

They are the husbands and wives who fight the same battles Zagaris has fought during the past 19 months.

According to the Bring Sean Home Foundation, founded in 2009 as a support group and resource hub, more than 4,700 American children were abducted outside the United States between 2008 and 2010 by a parent or guardian,

Getting them back is rarely quick and never easy. Zagaris found that out in the fall of 2011 when it became clear to her that her ex-husband had no intention of sending Leo home.

She contacted the U.S. State Department, office of Consular Affairs, and reported what had happened. They urged her to file an application with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction — a necessary step in any case that spans international borders.

The Hague Convention, designed to make the process work more smoothly, is contingent on both countries agreeing to its terms — which provide a framework for communicating the facts of a case and agreeing to abide by the laws of both countries.

In other words they need to get along, which can be a sticky situation depending on the state of world affairs.

“Sometimes they cooperate in getting a child back to the country,” said Wendy Osborne, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Indianapolis. “But some countries don’t play by the rules.”

Osborne declined to comment on Zagaris’ case — an agent in Indianapolis is heavily involved and filed the affidavit that led to charges being filed by the U.S. District Court.

But Osborne said the FBI is involved in hundreds of cases like this across the country.

“At one time I was working on six myself, involving Mexico, Syria, other countries, all at the same time,” Osborne said. “And these are very difficult cases because they are so emotional.”

According to the Bring Sean Home Foundation, children abducted abroad are often traumatized, losing contact with a parent and finding themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, forced to live in a country where they may not know the language or the culture.

Leo, does not speak Greek, Zagaris said. And despite assurances that he would be enrolled in an English-speaking school, she suspects that has never happened. Experts also say abducted children are often told lies about the other parent or guardian and the country from which they came.

Love, marriage, violence

A younger “Nick” and Alissa met in 2000 when he was a weekend waiter at a Greek restaurant, and she, a nutritionist and caterer by trade, was a manager. One thing led to another.

“It was mainly a physical relationship,” she said. “I had no intention of getting serious. But then, lo and behold, I’m pregnant.”

Attempts to reach Nickolaos Zagaris through his attorney for this story were unsuccessful.

Alissa said Nickolaos, a Greek citizen, was looking for a way to stay in America. He had come to the U.S. on a student visa and studied at the University of Indianapolis. But that visa had expired.

Not long after their wedding in July 2000, Leo was born. Zagaris said things changed once the pressures of parental responsibility set in.

“Nick changed,” she said. “Before that it was just me and him. The day Leo was born, everything changed.” As the baby grew, Zagaris said, Nick grew physically abusive toward her. In 2008, Nick was arrested and charged in Hamilton County with domestic battery and felony strangulation. Before he would stand trial on those charges, he fled to Greece.

Zagaris filed and was granted a divorce (without her husband present) in Hamilton County. The court granted custody of Leo to his mom. Despite the charges pending against him, the court allowed for a clause in the divorce decree that not only gave Nick visitation rights, but guaranteed visits to Greece.

In exchange, Nick Zagaris would maintain child support payments and put $5,000 into an account controlled by his attorney as a sort of “insurance clause” that he would have to give to his ex-wife should he ever fail to return Leo in a timely fashion.

According to the State Department, Zagaris was lucky her ex-husband had not taken their son to a non-compliant nation such as Costa Rica, Guatemala, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, France or Poland — countries on the State Department’s “enforcement concerns” list when it comes to child issues.

Greece, however, is known as a country that works well with other countries.

She had other facts in her favor. Nick was not only a fugitive from a felony charge in Hamilton County, he was violating a court-ordered divorce agreement that specifically gave her custody.

The Greek courts set a hearing date for April 6, 2012.

During the delay, Zagaris also filed charges against Nick in Hamilton County, based on the violation of the custodial agreement. Hamilton County issued a warrant for his arrest.

She wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pleading for the White House to do something to help.

Not much happened.

“I used to be a very clear, organized thinker,” Zagaris said. “But I’ve lost my mind.

“There is a very high suicide rate with our kind. It’s very hard. We have to fight through every obstacle, every hurdle just to get our cases taken seriously.

“It’s like our children are wrapped up in this diplomatic nightmare.”

The State Department spokesman told The Indianapolis Star on Friday that it is working as quickly as it can.

“The Department of State is aware of the Zagaris case and is providing all appropriate assistance,” the spokesman said. “We will continue to monitor the case and the welfare of the child through close coordination with the U.S. Embassy in Athens and the Greek Central Authority for the Hague Abduction Convention.”

A final dagger?

With two legal victories in Greek courts, Zagaris was counting the days when she could bring her son back.

But on Jan. 9, the State Department sent Zagaris an email saying that the Greek Central Authority told U.S. officials that because of “recent judicial strikes” in Greece a final and formal decision could take up to two years to be published.

After that, her ex-husband would have 30 days to file yet another appeal, with the Greek supreme court, the email said. Another appeal would mean another long delay.

However, the State Department told her that it was working with Greek officials who seem to be willing to move forward with returning Leo to Indiana despite any future appeal … “and will be in touch as soon as the situation is clarified.”

Zagaris was stunned.

“It’s just back and forth, back and forth,” she said. “I’m frustrated. I’ve won the right twice now from Greece. I’ve got the acknowledgments from the courts.

“It’s been 19 months.”

While all this was happening, Zagaris said she received an angry phone call from her ex-husband. According to an FBI affidavit, Nick Zagaris threatened to “take (him) to the United Arab Emirates” — a nation not part of the Hague Convention.

Not long after that call, an FBI special agent filed the paperwork and U.S. Magistrate Judge Tim Baker signed the formal federal charges against Nikolaos Zagaris for international parental kidnapping.

Those charges have been filed with Interpol, the international police community comprising 190 countries, including Greece. Greek authorities now (or soon) will have the authority to simply arrest him on those charges.

But now all Zagaris can do is wait for the words that will finally end a mother’s nightmare.

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United States – Parental Child Abduction Statistics 2012

January 25, 2013

Source: U.S State Dept.

Unreported cases of abduction are forecasted to be between 100% and 125% of reported cases. These cases continue to increase due to a flux of immigration migration and both documented (legal) and undocumented (illegal) residents not being aware that they can turn to their government for assistance.

2012 Outgoing case statistics

2012 Incoming case statistics

2011 Outgoing case statistics

2011 Incoming case statistics 

2010 Outgoing case statistics

2010 Incoming case statistics

2012 report on compliance with the 1980 Hague convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction

United Kingdom: 

New figures reveal that the number of parental child abduction cases dealt with by the Foreign Office has risen by 88% in under a decade.

In the last year alone the Foreign Office’s Child Abduction Section fielded an average of four calls per day to its specialist advice line, more than half of which were new cases .

The Foreign Office says that that the statistics could be just the tip of the iceberg because many cases go unreported as parents seek custody of their children through foreign courts.

Research commissioned by the Foreign Office shows that half the UK population believes the government can intervene to order the return of a child to the UK if he or she has been abducted by a parent. However, the reality is that whilst help is available, parental child abduction cases can take years to resolve.

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U.S / Barbados – Mother who kidnapped children gets 18 months

January 19, 2013

Source: Buffalo News

Jacqueline Bontzolakes says an abusive relationship forced her to gather up her two kids, flee her Town of Tonawanda home and escape to faraway Barbados.

A federal court jury didn’t buy her story, however, and instead found her guilty in one of Buffalo’s first cases of international parental kidnapping.

Today, a judge sentenced Bontzolakes to 18 months in prison, well below what he could have given her.

“I ended up doing something I regret in order to protect my daughter,” she told U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson in a tearful plea for leniency.

Bontzolakes never denied taking her kids away from their fathers and leaving the country, but insisted there were sound reasons for what she did – the fear that her oldest daughter also was being abused.

Federal prosecutors tell a far different story of why Bontzolakes kidnapped her children. They claim it was because she had lost custody of the girl.

“I would ask the court not to forget who the real victims are here, the two children she kidnapped,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Fauzia K. Mattingly told Wilson, a visiting judge from Arkansas.

With nearly two dozen of Bontzolakes’ family, friends and supporters looking on, Wilson stopped well short of the three-year sentence he could have given her under federal sentencing guidelines.

The government’s case against Bontzolakes offers a glimpse into international parental kidnapping, which until this year was rare, if not unheard of, in Buffalo federal court.

It has been a long-standing problem elsewhere, however, an issue so big that a Hague Convention in 1980 resulted in an international treaty governing how countries deal with these types of kidnappings.

 

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Profiles of parental child abductors including sociopathic personality

January 12, 2013

Source: findandrewthompsoneurope

Doctors Johnston and Girdner offer six profiles of parental child abductors.Read here for more information on the six profiles and the report “Parental Child Abduction is Child Abuse” by Nancy Faulkner, Ph.D Presented to the United Nations Convention on Child Rights. 

The fourth profile offered by Johnston and Girdner is the sociopathic personality.

Dr Tara J. Palmatier has recently written an article about “Rethinking Female Sociopathy, Part One”. She says if we think of sociopathy on a continuum, there are degrees of sociopathy. There are subtle forms of sociopathy and, if you’re a woman, even socially acceptable forms of sociopathy. Many sociopaths wear masks of normalcy when in public and terrorize their nearest and dearest behind close doors; often with the assistance of Family Court and law enforcement. Instead of targeting and exploiting the general public, they target their intimate partners and family members and anyone else who gets close enough to see behind their masks.

The article goes on to discuss the characteristics of a sociopath as follows: Psychologists Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hare both developed sociopathy checklists. The following characteristics are culled from their work. Sociopaths have Jekyll and Hyde personalities and can be superficially charming. Their outward appearance is often very conventional or they disguise themselves as helpless victims. Alternately, sociopaths may come across as grandiose and narcissistic. Sociopaths come in all shapes, sizes, sexes, ethnicities and walks of life.

Sociopaths seem to have contempt for their victim’s feelings and believe their victims deserve to be hurt, taken advantage of and exploited. They have no empathy or very selective empathy (e.g., your wife shows empathy toward someone who hurts or bullies you). They lie, cheat, manipulate, and/or verbally and/or physically intimidate others to get their way or to “win.” To a sociopath, the ends justify the means.

Sociopaths may refuse to recognize that others have rights and believe they’re entitled to violate the rights of others. In fact, they often try to control and humiliate their victims. They see people as objects and value others based upon their utility and ease of exploitation rather than fellow human beings. People are either targets and opportunities for exploitation. They don’t have friends, but rather victims and accomplices who later become victims.

Sociopaths often have a gross and exaggerated sense of entitlement. They seem incapable of true love relationships and often confuse love with ability to control and exploit someone. They are unable to form healthy attachments with others.

Sociopaths seem to be able to lie very easily. You can have a video or audio recording of them perpetrating a crime or some abusive act and they will still pee on your leg and tell you it’s raining. They often believe their own lies and may even be able to pass a polygraph. They seem to lack the capacity for remorse or guilt. For example, many of my clients are more likely to squeeze blood from a stone than to receive a sincere apology from their wives, girlfriends or exes.

When sociopaths seem to be expressing positive feelings it is typically because they are mimicking others to appear socially and psychologically normal.

Sociopaths have a need for extreme stimulation in order to feel emotion and are prone to feeling chronically bored. Some may resort to physical violence, gambling, drugs and alcohol, and/or promiscuity; while others create unnecessary conflict and drama for stimulation.

Sociopaths blame others for their bad behaviors and do not take personal responsibility for their actions. At their core, they are filled with rage, which is often split off and projected onto their victims. Sociopaths have poor behavioral and emotional controls and can be impulsive. They often alternate rage and abuse with small expressions of love and approval to keep their victims under their control.

Sociopaths lack boundaries and do not care how their behavior affects others. They may become enraged and/or desperate when their victims try to enforce boundaries on their abusive behaviors. They have difficulty maintaining friendships, and, is it any wonder given how they treat others? They typically end relationships and/or try destroying former friends who have seen behind their masks. Some may have long-term friendships, but they either seem to be long-distance or friendships with incredibly damaged individuals with low self-esteem who admire the sociopath, i.e., sycophants. Some may have a history of childhood emotional and behavioral disturbances while others do not. Some sociopathic individuals come from otherwise healthy and loving families.

Sociopaths are often irresponsible and unreliable. They have a history of breaking promises yet become enraged and vengeful if they believe someone has broken a promise to them. They have unrealistic life plans and often live beyond their means. Many live what can be described as a parasitic life in that they get through life by exploiting others.

Sociopaths may have diffuse identities. Many dramatically change their appearance or outward persona in order to exploit new victims or to avoid punishment. For example, when many of my clients met their wives and girlfriends, they feigned similar interests, beliefs, etc., and pretended to be someone they weren’t in order to secure the relationship.

Sociopaths are ungrateful and contemptuous of people who try to help and understand them. Oftentimes, they do not believe anything is wrong with them, which is why therapy rarely works. If they acknowledge a problem, they usually blame others for it. Or, if they are formally diagnosed with a mental illness or other personality disorder, they may use their diagnosis to absolve them of their abusive behaviors.

Sociopaths typically do not trust others. They can be authoritarian, paranoid and secretive. They seek relationships with others who will accept, tolerate, condone or admire their bad behavior. They like nothing better than to have a willing victim.

Sociopaths often try to control every aspect of their victims’ lives. They can be pretty territorial about their victims, which their victims often confuse with love and jealousy. It’s not about love. You’re their half-dead mouse and they don’t want any other predators messing with “their property.” A good example of this is when a woman becomes unhinged when her ex begins dating or gets remarried — especially if she’s already moved onto to another victim, er, I mean, relationship.

Lastly, and I think this characteristic will resonate with many of you, sociopaths have an emotional need to justify their crimes and demand that their victims show them gratitude, love and respect. In other words: Sociopaths expect that their victims show gratitude for being victimized by them.

For those interested in reading a further article (Part 2) by Dr Tara J. Palmatier click here

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Kidnap threat grows as European economic woes continue

January 12, 2013

Source: commercialriskeurope

The 20,000 kidnappings reported worldwide annually represents a growing risk for business with the economic woes in Europe likely to see incidents rise in countries such as Greece and Italy, Willis warned this week.

In its Resilience publication, the broker said the actual number of kidnaps is likely to be far higher than the official figures suggest as many go unreported.

In hotspot Mexico there were over 2,000 kidnaps reported last year, but according to the Council for Law and Human Rights, an NGO that works with families of victims, the true figure is around 18,000.

Earlier this year global security company Red24 noted that official data showed a 9% increase in kidnapping incidents between 2010 and 2011.

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“The threat is growing, the risk is fluid and it can very easily move from one country to another,” said Richard Scurrell, Executive Director at Willis’ specialist kidnap-and-ransom division, Special Contingency Risks (SCR).

A number of factors are driving this increase, primarily inequalities in developing nations. “A lot of the countries where kidnaps occur regularly have a fantastically wealthy element of the population at the top, a very small middle class and a very large poor population,” explained Paul Mills, Executive Director of Security Services at SCR.

As the economic crisis in many parts of the world drags on, so more countries may match this profile, he continued.

Mexico, for example, saw a surge in kidnapping and extortion following the economic crash of 1994, and now Mr Mills fears the risk could return to European countries such as Greece or Italy, where it has not been a serious issue for decades.

“We have already seen incidents of high-net-worth individuals being attacked by more radical elements,” he said.

The growth in income inequality and increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of large multinational businesses is therefore a real issue for risk managers at big firms.

As Willis pointed out: “The latter’s workers make obvious targets for abduction; the former means a growing pool of potential perpetrators.” Kidnapping comes in various guises. Planned events, where perpetrators have watched their target and are well-organised, are distinct from opportunistic crimes, where the kidnapping is an afterthought to a robbery or carjacking.

The latter tend to result in lower ransom demands and shorter detentions, but also tend to be more unpredictable, meaning more danger for the victim.

Latin America continues to pioneer new methods, such as virtual kidnapping. In these instances kidnappers monitoring victims to learn their routines and perpetrators use this knowledge to extort money from families or employers by claiming to have kidnapped the victim when he or she is simply unreachable.

Whilst the majority of large companies in the developed world already have some form of kidnap and ransom coverage, said Mr Mills, many choose not to draw attention to such policies.

Coverage is often not disclosed to employees to stop them becoming targets. Employees can also commit fraud against companies.

“There have been various cases where individuals have apparently been kidnapped, only to be found later hiding out,” pointed out Mr Mills.

Willis argues that the kidnap and ransom coverage is ‘wide ranging’.

Policies usually cover not just the ransom (reimbursed, rather than paid directly by the insurer), but various other expenses involved such as travel costs, medical bills, rewards for informants and time away from work for those released-important considerations, given the length of time kidnapping cases can take to resolve, said the broker.

In addition to kidnapping, insurance also typically covers against extortion, wrongful detention and hijacking.

Added endorsements might include cover for loss of earnings, security costs in the case of threats, product losses as a result of extortion, and emergency repatriation.

Kidnap and ransom policies can also cover the costs of crisis-response consultants in the event of an incident. This is their real value, said Willis.

“The real value of these policies is in the resources that are brought to bear in the event of a kidnap,” said Mr Scurrell. “The overwhelming majority of multinational organisations can afford to pay a ransom, but they’re not likely to have the expertise and experience in-house to deal with a kidnapping.”

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Parental Abduction – Documentary Special: Anatomy of a kidnapping

January 3, 2013

Source: abc.net

An agreement between countries drawn up in The Hague is meant to prevent kids from being bounced around the world. Japan, though, stands out from the pack and for all the wrong reasons.

The government there is accused of being too slow to stop its citizens from taking their own children, without the approval of one parent, back to Japan.

For the first time, Sarah Dingle’s investigation takes us inside the mind of an abductor in the anatomy of a kidnapping.SARAH DINGLE: Eric Kalmus says it’s time to let go. 

Listen to the whole interview here: http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/pm/201212/20121224-rcaffdocos-kidnapping.mp3

ERIC KALMUS: I’m in a very good spot. I have a wonderful family. I need to give them the amount of energy that I was giving Amy. I’m still here, she’s still in my heart, I still love her. Any day that she picks up the phone and calls me, I’ll gladly go meet her wherever she is.

But yeah, I think I’ve allowed it to not be in my hands any more.

I’m better now. It doesn’t hurt like it used to. It doesn’t hurt like it used to.

Also read: Expert: Parental abduction never in child’s best interest

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What is Parental Child Abduction?

December 31, 2012

Parental child abduction occurs when a person who is connected to a child takes them away from their country of habitual residence, that is the country they normally reside in, without the permission of either those with parental responsibility or the courts.

Most commonly, this takes place following a separation or divorce and is carried out by the parent who has not been awarded custody of the child.

Once a relatively rare phenomenon, an increase in cross-cultural marriages, higher divorce rates, changes in immigration laws and cheaper foreign travel have prompted a rise in international child custody disputes, some of which have resulted in parental child abduction as parents seek to take their children out of the country without permission.

Is It A Criminal Offence For A Parent To Abduct A Child?

Under the Child Abduction Act of 1984, it is a criminal offence for anyone connected with a child to take them out of the UK for more than 28 days without the consent of any other person who has parental responsibility for that child or a consenting order from the courts. A person is connected with the child if they are parent of the child, guardian or special guardian, anyone who has a residence order for the child or who has the child living with them.

Those required to give their consent would be the mother, the father (if he has parental responsibility), guardian, special guardian or anyone who has the child living with them or has permission from the court.

Also read: Expert: Parental abduction never in child’s best interest

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One key to ABP World Group`s successful recovery and re-unification of your loved one is to use all necessary means available

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We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year…

Dear Friends

May you be blessed with a safe, peaceful holiday in the company of family and friends, both far and near.

From our families to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our 24/7 Emergency Phone will be open during Christmas.

Follow our updates on Twitter and Facebook

One key to ABP World Group`s successful recovery and re-unification of your loved one is to use all necessary means available

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NOTE: We are always available 24/7

U.S Phone Number: (646) 502-7443

UK Phone Number: 020 3239 0013

Or you can call our 24h Emergency phone number: +47 45504271