In criminal law. The offense of taking away a wife, child, or ward, by fraud and persuasion, or open violence. 3 Bl.Comm. 139-141; State v. Chisenhall, 106 N.C. 676, 11 S.E. 518 (female under 14) ; State v. Hopper, 186 N.C. 405, 119 S.E. 769, 772 (wife).
To take away surreptitiously by force in kidnapping. Doss v. State, 220 Ala. 30, 123 So. 231, 232, 68 A.L.R. 712.
The unlawful taking or detention of any female for purposes of marriage, concubinage, or prostitution. 4 Steph.Com. 84; People v. Crotty, 55 Hun, 611, 9 N.Y.S. 937. In many states this offense is created by statute and in most cases applies to females under a given age.
By statute in some states, abduction includes the withdrawal of a husband from his wife, as where another woman alienates his affection and entices him away and causes him to abandon his wife. Humphrey v. Pope, 122 Cal. 253, 54 P. 847