Child abandonment

Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring in an illegal way, with the intent of never resuming or reasserting guardianship.^[1] The phrase is typically used to describe the physical abandonment of a child. Still, it can also include severe cases of neglect and emotional abandonment, such as when parents fail to provide financial and emotional support for children over an extended period (sometimes referred to as "throwaway" children).^[1] An abandoned child is referred to as a foundling (as opposed to a runaway or an orphan).^[1] Baby dumping refers to parents leaving a child younger than 12 months in a public or private place with the intent of terminating their care for the child.^[1] It is also known as rehoming when adoptive parents use illegal means, such as the internet, to find new homes for their children.^[2][3][4] In the case where child abandonment is anonymous within the first 12 months, it may be referred to as secret child abandonment.^[5]

In the United States and many other countries, child abandonment is usually treated as a subset of the broader category of child abuse. (However, states have laws allowing a parent to permanently surrender a child at a designated safe haven "where they will not be prosecuted."^[6]) In the United States it is punishable as a class 4 felony, and a second or subsequent offense after a prior conviction is a class 3 felony (see classes of felonies) with different state judicial systems treating it with varying severities and classifications.^[6] Child abandonment may lead to the permanent loss of parental rights of the parents.^[7] Some states allow for reinstatement of the parental rights, with about half of the states in the US having had laws for this purpose.^[8][9] Perpetrators can also be charged with reckless abandonment if victims die as a result of their actions or neglect.^[10]

Official statistics on child abandonment do not exist in most countries.^[5] In Denmark, an estimate of child abandonment prevalence was 1.7 infants per 100,000 births,^[5] with another source suggesting higher prevalence in Central and Eastern European countries such as Slovakia with data suggesting 4.9 per 1,000 live births.^[11]