                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

ABDUCTION AND KIDNAPPING DEFINED; FORCED LABOR; PUNISHMENT (§ 18.2-47)

A. Any person who, by force, intimidation or deception, and without legal
justification or excuse, seizes, takes, transports, detains or secretes another
person with the intent to deprive such other person of his personal liberty or
to withhold or conceal him from any person, authority or institution lawfully
entitled to his charge, shall be deemed guilty of &#8220;abduction.&#8221;

B. Any person who, by force, intimidation or deception, and without legal
justification or excuse, obtains the labor or services of another person, or
seizes, takes, transports, detains or secretes another person or threatens to do
so, with the intent to subject him to forced labor or services, shall be deemed
guilty of &#8220;abduction.&#8221; For purposes of this subsection, the term
&#8220;intimidation&#8221; shall include destroying, concealing, confiscating,
withholding, or threatening to withhold a passport, immigration document, or
other governmental identification, threatening to report another as being
illegally present in the United States, or threatening to separate another from
or to harm a family member.

C. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any law-enforcement officer
in the performance of his duty. The terms &#8220;abduction&#8221; and
&#8220;kidnapping&#8221; shall be synonymous in this Code. Except as provided in
subsection D, abduction of a minor shall be punished as a Class 2 felony.
Abduction for which no punishment is otherwise prescribed shall be punished as a
Class 5 felony.

D. If an offense under subsection A is committed by the parent or a family or
household member, as defined in &#xA7; 16.1-228, who has been ordered custody or
visitation of the person abducted and punishable as contempt of court in any
proceeding then pending, the offense shall be a Class 1 misdemeanor in addition
to being punishable as contempt of court. However, such offense, if committed by
the parent or a family or household member, as defined in &#xA7; 16.1-228, who
has been ordered custody or visitation of the person abducted and punishable as
contempt of court in any proceeding then pending and the person abducted is
removed from the Commonwealth by the abducting parent or a family or household
member, as defined in &#xA7; 16.1-228, who has been ordered custody or
visitation, shall be a Class 6 felony in addition to being punishable as
contempt of court.

HISTORY: Code 1950, §§ 18.1-36, 18.1-37; 1960, c. 358; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1979,
c. 663; 1980, c. 506; 1997, c. 747; 2009, c. 662; 2023, c. 400; 2024, c. 368.