A disturbing report in The New York Times suggests that American children as young as 10 are being married off to adults, with the approval of either their parents, and US court judges.
The report, which was compiled from statistics collected in New Jersey, says most of the cases uncovered by researchers involved girls being married to adult men, but in at least one case, a 10-year-old boy was legally married to an adult woman.
In some cases, parental permission was sought and given, with the report saying: “Of course, one person’s “parental consent” can be another’s “parental coercion,” but state laws typically do not call for anyone to investigate whether a child is marrying willingly.”
The investigation was undertaken by a group called Unchained at Last, founded to help women escape from arranged, forced marriages.
Welfare workers studied health department data in the state of New Jersey, where 16 and 17-year-olds may wed with parental consent, and where children under 15 may marry with judicial approval.
“Unfortunately, the available records do not include any identifying information, beyond the ages of the participants,” the report says “but nevertheless, the data show that 3,499 children were married in New Jersey between 1995 and 2012.”
“Most were age 16 or 17 and married with parental consent, but 178 were between ages 10 and 15, meaning a judge approved their marriages.”
More than 90 percent of the children were married to adults, “often at ages or with age differences that could have triggered statutory-rape charges, not a marriage license.”
Among the cases uncovered included a judge who approved the marriage of a 10-year-old boy to an 18-year-old woman; and a judge who allowed a 12-year-old girl to marry a 25-year-old man.
The report says parents give many reasons for forcing their children into marriage, including controlling the children’s sexuality and behavior and protecting “family honor, or to enhance their status or gain economic security.
