Gender Bias in Child Abduction?

Recent articles in both the Guardian and the Telegraph highlight a rise inparental child abuctions. A parental child abduction is when one parent makes off with the child or children without the other parent's consent. While this is most common with a parent who is unhappy with the custody arrangements after a divorce,

It can occur whether or not the parents are separated or divorced and sometimes even regardless of the existence of court orders.

(Channel 4)
Other sources state that it is only an illegal kidnapping if the person taking the child does not have parental or custodial right.

I was slightly irked when I read the Guardian article, as it had a picture of a man at an airport with a child, as if to imply that the child was being kidnapped by the man (the father). It is said that in the UK mothers get custody of the children 93% of the time. This would make it highly likely that the kidnapper was the father. However, this statistic would only apply to parents taking the child AFTER the courts had awarded custody. I do not beleive they include parents who run off in the middle of the night with the children before or without a divorce.

I have directly known three people affected by child abduction. In one case, the father kidnapped the child, neglected her, and caused brain damage. I do not think the father and mother were married. The police were involved, and the child returned to the mother. In another case, the mother escaped with/abducted (depending on your perspective) the child to a foreign country that was not on the list of countries that recognise child abduction. The father followed the mother to the country. In a third case, the mother took the children to a UK location "to visit family" and never returned. He later moved to be closer to the children following the formal separation. The first case is clearly child abduction. The second perhaps, as the father in question did have mental stability issues. The third, you could just say it was a poorly planned divorce. Yet notice that the woman always retained the child in all three cases, even though in two of them the woman was the one who left without the father's knowledge.

For more information on International Child Abduction, please see Reunite.