​     The crime of child abduction can be committed in two ways:  1)  when a person without the right to custody of a child maliciously takes, entices away, keeps, withholds or hides that child from the child's lawful custodian; or 2) when a person with the right to legal custody of a child deprives a lawful custodian of a right to custody, or  a person of a right to visitation. In such cases, the victim is not the child who has been abducted but the lawful custodian of the child. In addition to child abduction, the person who has committed that offense can also be charged with kidnapping because the victim in a kidnapping case is a person of any age who has been forcibly or by other means stolen, taken, held, detained or arrested. Because child abduction and kidnaping protect different victims, both charges can be filed against the same defendant in the same complaint based on the same set of facts. Child abduction prosecutions commonly result from family court cases involving disputes between the parents as to which parent should have custody of the child. If one parent alleges the other parent poses a threat to the child's safety, a ruling by the family court in favor of either parent may cause the other parent to flee with the child. Child abduction cases require the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the parent who fled with the child acted maliciously. Proving malice is a heavy burden when flight was preceded by physical or emotional abuse of the fleeing parent or the child by the other parent.