1. The act of leading someone away by force or fraudulent persuasion. • Some jurisdictions have added various elements to this basic definition, such as that the abductor must have the intent to marry or defile the person, that the abductee must be a child, or that the abductor must intend to subject the abductee to concubinage or prostitution.
2. Archaic. The crime of taking away a female person, esp. one who is below a certain age (such as 16 or 18), without her consent by use of persuasion, fraud, or violence, for the purpose of marriage, prostitution, or illicit sex. [Cases: Criminal Law 45.10. C.J.S. Kidnapping §§ 5–6.]
3. Loosely, KIDNAPPING. See ENTICEMENT OF A CHILD. — abduct, vb. — abductor, n. — abductee, n.
“Abduction seems not to have been a crime at early common law, but found its way thereinto through an old English statute which defined the crime substantially as the taking of a woman against her will for lucre, and afterwards marrying her, or causing her to be married to another, or defiling her, or causing her to be defiled.” Justin Miller, Handbook of Criminal Law § 104, at 319 (1934).
