• Intentionally violates a court order granting custody, care or possession to another by hiding, holding, or taking the child from the jurisdiction of the court.
• Intentionally violates a court order prohibiting him/her from hiding, holding, or taking the child from the jurisdiction of the court.

If the parents have never been married, paternity has not been adjudicated, and no one else has been granted custody of the child, the mother is presumed to be the lawful custodian. 

• If the alleged father hides, holds, or takes the child without the mother's consent, he has committed child abduction.

• If the father hides, holds, or takes the child from the jurisdiction of the court, he has committed child abduction.

• She can be charged with child abduction if she hides or takes the child.  Note: Being forced out of her home or being hospitalized, etc., does not constitute abandonment.

• If a parent intentionally conceals or removes a child when the parents are married, and a divorce case has been filed, or a parent has been served with a summons regarding a pending divorce, and before the entry of a custody order.
• If a parent intentionally conceals or removes a child when the parents are unmarried, and a parentage case has been filed, or a parent is served with a summons regarding a parentage case, and before an order of custody is entered.
• If the parents are/have been married and a custody order has not yet been entered, and the child is concealed by a parent for 15 days or more, with no reasonable attempts to notify the other parent of the child’s whereabouts and how the child can be contacted.

Parents who are fleeing domestic violence to reside with their child(ren) in a domestic violence program (not family or friends) are exempt from this requirement of notification, but only for as long as they reside in the domestic violence program with their children.  Once they leave the program, the 15 day period to notify the other parent starts to run.”  

We strongly advise victims contemplating fleeing domestic violence with their children to reside in a domestic violence program, to immediately contact a legal service provider when first going to a shelter to put safeguards in place to lessen the likelihood of a child abduction charge being filed.

The following are also violations of the child abduction law:

• Failing or refusing to return a child to the legal custodian in Illinois following out-of-state visitation.
• Hiding, holding or taking the child for payment or promise of payment at the instruction of someone who has no legal right to custody.
• Keeping a child taken from another state without consent of the legal custodian or in violation of custody order in Illinois for thirty days.
• Where a child is concealed or removed from the other parent with physical force or threat of such force.