Didn't realize this. Seems like a loophole around statutory rape. https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/child-marriage-rape/129950/ As of 2021, child marriage remains legal in 44 U.S. states. With the permission of parents, children can marry from as early as 12 years old, often to people double their age. From 2000 and 2018 in the U.S., nearly 300,000 children under the age of 18 were legally married, mostly girls. Globally around 12 million girls under age 18 marry every year. This study highlights the blurred legal boundary between child marriage and sexual violence, lifting the veil on cultural norms which negatively affect children, finding marital exemptions to statutory rape laws to encourage sexual acts with children – which elsewhere, is considered criminal. Marriage permitted before legal age of consent Published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, a new study highlights that child marriages violated statutory rape laws in 14 states – where in many U.S. states, children can legally marry at an earlier age than they can consent to sex. According to researchers from McGill University, this controversial situation entails that sex between spouses may be a criminal act, but some states exempt sex between married spouses from their definition of statutory rape, which allows people to take advantage of children when legally married to them. The researchers compared data from marriage certificates and statutory rape laws across the U.S., finding that the proportion of child marriages that met the definition of a sex crime in different states varied from 1% to over 50%. In 33 states, most statutory rape laws excused sex between married couples from the definition of sex crimes. In these states, the proportion of child marriages that would have been crimes, absent these exemptions, varied from less than 1% to over 80%. Senior author Alissa Koski, an Assistant Professor in the Department of in Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill University, said: “Our study exposes the inconsistency between laws that permit children to marry and laws that criminalize sex with children across the U.S. “The research shows that some child marriages are indistinguishable from sex crimes. It’s unclear why they were certified as marriages rather than prosecuted.” https://www.newsweek.com/tennessee-bill-proposes-eliminating-marriage-age-requirements-1695209 Children as young as 12 have been granted marriage licenses in South Carolina, Alaska and Louisiana, while 13-year-olds have been married in 14 states. Only six states have banned child marriage, including Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island and New York.
Would have been good for the article to quote from those particular states that provide exemptions to statutory rape in case of marriage. That's the main thing, isn't it?
@durvasa link below has the details for every single states where child marriage provides a statutory defense or exception to prosecution FINAL-Aug-2020-Policy-Brief-Disconnect-btwn-Stat-Rape-and-Marriage-Age.pdf (tahirih.org) Falling Through the Cracks: How Laws Allow Child Marriage to Happen in Today's America - Tahirih Justice Center Tahirih Justice Center This Tahirih Justice Center report (originally published in August 2017) is the first comprehensive analysis of provisions in all 50 states and Washington, DC that leave children more vulnerable to forced marriage and the harms of early marriage. The report provides state lawmakers and advocates in the United States with the information they need to pass laws that more effectively protect children from the harms of child marriage. The report’s fundamental examination of common exceptions to minimum marriage age laws remains pertinent, but a number of states have passed at least some reforms in this interim. To track progress in the movement or to access current 50-state analyses and compilations of marriage-age laws, please see our other resources at tahirih.org/childmarriage.
