ABDUCTION (Lat. abductio, abducere, to lead away), a
law term denoting the forcible or fraudulent removal of a
person, limited by custom to the case where a woman is the
victim. In the case of men or children, it has been usual
to substitute the term kidnapping (q.v.). The old English
laws against abduction, generally contemplating its object
as the possession of an heiress and her fortune, have been
repealed by the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which
makes it felony for any one from motives of lucre to take
away or detain against her will with intent to marry or
carnally know her, &c., any woman of any age who has any
interest in any real or personal estate, or is an heiress
presumptive, or co-heiress, or presumptive next of kin to
any one having such an interest; or for any one to cause
such a woman to be married or carnally known by any other
person; or for any one with such intent to allure, take
away, or detain any such woman under the age of twenty-one,
out of the possession and against the will of her parents or
guardians. By s. 54, forcible taking away or detention
against her will of any woman of any age with like intent is
felony. The same act makes abduction without eyen any such
intent a misdemeanour, where an unmarried girl under the
age of sixteen is unlawfully taken out of the possession and
against the will of her parents or guardians. In such a case
the girl's consent is immaterial, nor is it a defence that the
person charged reasonably believed that the girl was sixteen or
over. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 made still more
stringent provisions with reference to abduction by making
the procuration or attempted procuration of any virtuous
female under the age of twenty-one years a misdemeanour, as
well as the abduction of any girl under eighteen years of
age with the intent that she shall be carnally known, or the
detaining of any female against her will on any premises,
with intent to have, or that another person may have, carnal
knowledge of her. In ScotlanD
?, where there is no statutory
adjustment, abduction is similarly dealt with by practice.
Source: An unnamed encyclopedia from a project that puts out-of-copyright texts into the public domain. This is from a *very* old source, and reflects the thinking of the turn of the last century. --
BryceHarrington
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