Abduction. In the older systems of law, abduction meant the unlawful taking away of a free person, or of a slave belonging to another. Thus, the buying of a free person was punishable by the criminal law of Rome under the name of plagium, which is still used in Scotland for the theft of children. Substantially, however, in modern times, abduction, except in the special cases of voters and witnesses, is confined to the case of women and children. In England, Kidnapping (q.v.) includes the theft of any person, but is more properly applied to the taking away beyond the seas—whereby the person loses the protection of his own laws. For this the technical term in Scotland is abduction. In England, abduction technically means the taking away of a woman either against her own will, or (in the case of a woman under the age of 21) against the will of her parents or guardians. The common forms of the crime are defined in the Criminal Law Consolidation Act, 1861. Where the woman is taken by force or fraud with a view to marriage or seduction, the heavy penalty of fourteen years' penal servitude may be inflicted, with the forfeiture of the husband's property rights, if marriage has taken place. The mere abduction of an unmarried girl under 16 from her parents or guardians, is punishable by two years' imprisonment; and under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, such taking of a girl under 18 with a view to seduction meets with the same punishment, provided there was no reason to suppose the girl was above 18. Under the same Act, the detention of any woman or girl against her will for improper purposes, meets with the same punishment; the common case being that clothes are withheld from girls who desire to leave improper houses. The abduction of a married woman is, under an old English statute, separately punishable by two years' imprisonment and fine. The abduction of children under 14 is technically known in England as child-stealing, and is punishable by fourteen years' penal servitude as a maximum. The mother of a child, or the father of a bastard, is in no case chargeable with the offence. Generally, the offence of abduction is more often committed by decoying and fraudulent arts than by force. In Scotland, the plagium is more comprehensive than the English child-stealing, as it applies to all cases of children under puberty, whatever the motive may be.
In the United States, abduction is the taking and carrying away of a child, a ward, a wife, &c. by fraud, persuasion, or open violence. Every one who takes away any female under the age of 18 years from her father, mother, guardian, or other person having the legal charge of her person, without her consent for the purpose of prostitution, is guilty of a felony. The gist of the offence is the enticing and carrying away. In abduction for the purpose of marriage, it is not necessary to use physical force or violence, nor is it any defence that the abductor really believed, or had reason to believe, the girl to be over 16. A child under the age of 14 years is incapable of giving her consent. Abduction throughout the United States is a felony, and punished by fine, in some states, not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and by separate or solitary confinement at labour for a period not exceeding twenty-five years.