New York & Los Angeles (PRWEB) March 26, 2012
According to 'Chasing The Cyclone' and 'The World Turned Upside Down' author Peter Thomas Senese, a director of the I CARE Foundation and one of the researchers and writers of 'The Financial Cost Of International Parental Child Abduction On The U.S. Economy", "The financial burdern on American parents and taxpayers due to a failure to create international child abduction prevention laws and for courts to uphold existing laws that protect children, parents, and our nation are shocking, and will exceed billions of dollars, as is predicted in the upcoming report. One of the many questions that presents itself is why no presidential candidate is addressing the billions of dollars that our society will lose, not to mention a prediction that could see over 100,000 American children internationally kidnapped between the anticipated reported and unreported cases over the next decade? Certainly, the possibility of billions of dollars in losses and 100,000 American children's lives stolen is something to talk about."
The most recent statistics of international abduction comes from the 2010 Report on Compliance with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspect of International Child Abduction prepared by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues cites that there were 1,621 ‘reported’ international parental child abductions originating from the U.S. during 2009. The average growth rate over the past several years is approximately 20% per year.Additionally, the number of ‘unreported’ cases of international child abduction to contiguous nations is believed to be substantial and is discussed in "Crisis in America: International Parental Child Abduction Today" that is included in the publication "The World Turned Upside Down." Supporting the concern of the existence of significant ‘unreported’ cases is the most recent National Incidence Study of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (NISMART-2) study, which reports that of the 203,900 children that are estimated to be parentally abducted annually in the U.S., only 28% (56,500) of these abductions were reported to law enforcement.
Congressman Christopher Smith of New Jersey, the lead sponsor of H.R. 1940 stated in an 'Amendment In The Notice Of A Substitute to H.R. 1940, "The Department of State's Office Of Children's Issues, which serves as the Central Authority of the United States for purposes of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction reported that from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2010, it received 3,239 new requests for assistance in the return of 4,728 children to the United States from other countries."
Requests for assistance to the United States Office of Children's Issues does not include 'unreported' cases of international abduction, which according to the previously issued report 'Crisis In America' written by Peter Thomas Senese and Florida's Child Abduction Prevention Act writer Carolyn Ann Vlk, is forecasted to be near equivalent to the 'reported' cases of cross-border abduction due in part to immigration migration projections.
Previously, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency stated in their December, 2001 report that, "Left behind parents pay a high price in cases of international abduction. Approximately one-half of the parents surveyed reported on the amount of money they spent for and/on recovering abducted children. These parents spent on average $33,500.00 for search and recovery efforts. About one-fourth of these parents spent $75,000.00 or more." The survey's mean was $61, 238.00, and the medium was $33,500.00.
Joel S. Walter, a prominent international family law attorney practicing in New York State commented, "The 2001 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency report was published over a decade ago. During this past decade the number of illegal child abductions has grown exponentially. So too have the costs associated with reunification as will be conveyed in the I CARE Foundation's upcoming report. Combining the direct financial burden placed on targeted parents, we must consider the ancillary costs associated to court proceedings, law enforcement intervention, government administration of these costs, inflation, and the social cost directly related to the loss of taxable income and social service report. The reality is our nation needs to increase both state and federal laws and policies that prevent abduction from occurring, while our courts and the judges that oversee cases of potential abduction need to act with great caution. Undeniably, this is a grave problem. However, it is simply not a problem that parents who are targeted for this crime face. Economically, the abduction of a child is an attack on the American economy, and the financial cost over the next decade is enormous and will run into the billions of dollars. Clearly, at a time that our nation decides who our new government leaders will be, this is an issue that needs to be seriously discussed."
“According to the U.S. Department of Justice, human trafficking has become the second fastest growing criminal industry, with children accounting for roughly half of all victims”, says Matthew Barbis, Founder & Chairman of The Rose Brucia Educational Foundation, “It is abundantly clear that we must fight child abduction at the source and teach our children the proper response before the situation presents itself."