Five out of Every Thousand: Why “Child Marriage” Is Not As Uncommon In the United States As You’d Think
According to a report by Frontline published last year more than 200,000 minors were married in the United States between the years 2000 and 2015. The practice appears to be most common in states with large rural populations.Frontline reports that nearly 90% of minors who married in the United States were girls, though that statistic does not appear consistent among different studies. Most minors who marry are 16 or 17 years old; however, between 2000 and 2015, children as young as 12 were given marriage licenses in some states. Many of these marriages occurred between two teenagers, but many more (at least several hundred) minors were legally permitted to marry adults over the age of 40.
Several groups are currently lobbying, in several states, to amend laws allowing marriage of children under 18 years old to make it illegal in any
circumstance. In the last few years, lawmakers in 11 states proposed measures to raise the minimum marriage age. Connecticut banned marriage for children younger than 16 in June 2017, and New York raised the minimum marriage age from 14 to 17.
California attempted to ban marriage before the age of 18 with no exceptions, but the bill did not pass. California experienced pushback from several different groups concerned about intruding on fundamental rights of marriage, eliminating a way for minors to exit foster care through emancipation, and having children out of wedlock. The bill was subsequently amended to set stricter rules for judges asked to grant permission of a marriage of a minor, but supporters of the original bill argue that the amended bill may do more harm than good.
According to a study done in 2016 by the Pew Research Center, child marriage is most common in West Virginia and Texas, and in 2014, seven out of
every 1,000 American children in those states aged 15 to 17 were married.
Per the Pew Research Center, Nevada has a higher than average rate for child marriage. The average rate across the United States is 4.6 per every 1,000 minors. Nevada’s rate is 5.9 per every 1,000 minors. Per the Washington Post, 27 states do not specify an age below which a child cannot marry (with parental and judicial consent). Nevada is one of them.
NRS 122.020 allows an individual under the age of 18 but over the age of 16 to marry with the consent of one parent. NRS 122.025 allows for children under the age of 16 to marry with the consent of one parent and the permission of a district court judge. A judge may authorize the marriage “in extraordinary circumstances,” if it serves the child’s best interest and the child has parental consent. The statute specifies that “[p]regnancy alone does not establish that the best interest of such person will be served by marriage, nor may pregnancy be required by a court as a condition necessary for its authorization for the marriage of such person.”
Case law in Nevada on the subject is limited. One of the few Nevada cases on the subject of minor marriage is Kirkpatrick v. Eighth Judicial Dist. Court ex rel. County of Clark, 119 Nev. 66, 64 P.3d 1056 (2003). In Kirkpatrick, a 15-year-old girl named SierraDawn’s parents were divorced but had joint custody. She moved from California to New Mexico with her mother and decided she wanted to marry her 48-year-old guitar teacher. Her mother was amenable to the marriage, but it could not be performed under New Mexico law, so SierraDawn, her fiancé, and her mother travelled to Las Vegas.
Because SierraDawn was younger than 16, under Nevada law, she had to get a court order. The order, with her mother’s consent, was granted and SierraDawn got married. When SierraDawn’s father found out, he moved for immediate custody in New Mexico. His request was initially granted, but rescinded four days later when the New Mexico court found that the marriage had been legally performed in Nevada and, as such, SierraDawn was technically emancipated.
SierraDawn’s father then filed with the Clark County district court to vacate the order and annul the marriage, which was denied. He filed a petition with the Nevada Supreme court, arguing that he did not consent to the marriage and, therefore his rights as a parent were violated. The Nevada Supreme Court disagreed, stating “the right to marry is a fundamental right” and is the “cornerstone of the family and our civilization.” They did, however, find “reasonable constraints” on the right of a minor to marry were appropriate, but that NRS 122.025, which requires the consent of only one parent, was constitutional.
The dissenting justices stated that the Supreme Court “has never declared or suggested that a minor has a fundamental right to marry.” The dissent also states the the “actual impetus” for passing NRS 125.025 was “money,” and that the statute was passed “driven by the Nevada Wedding Association’s successful lobbying efforts.”
Though marriage under the age of eighteen is legal in 49 out of the 50 U.S. states, the U.S. Government has publicly expressed disapproval of child marriages. In 2016, the “U.S. Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls” was launched by four U.S. Government agencies, including the Department of State. The mission statement contains highly critical statements of “child, early, and forced marriage,” or CEFM, declaring it a “human rights abuse.”
The document defines CEFM as “a formal marriage or informal union where one or both parties is under the age of 18.” It states CEFM “is often rooted in patriarchal beliefs that value girls less and confine them to traditional roles of motherhood and domestic labor” and “arises from, and often perpetuates, gender inequality.” The document states CEFM is “a human rights abuse that contributes to economic hardship.”
It goes on to list different ways CEFM can damage a nation, including its effect on growth and development and economic productivity, before listing
detrimental effects CEFM can have on girls, including motherhood before girls are physically and mentally mature, loss of education, medical issues, and lower earning potential. The document states that efforts to curb CEFM should be “community-led and community-implemented, with support from the U.S. government.
According to the government agencies who launched the strategy, women who marry as minors face as 23% higher risk of heart attack, diabetes, cancer, and stroke, likely attributable to stress and lack of education. It states girls who marry before 18 are at an increased risk of developing psychiatric disorders, 50% more likely to drop out of high school, four times less likely to graduate from college, and 31% more likely to live in poverty when they’re older. Further, studies have shown that marriages that begin when one spouse is a minor have a 70% chance of ending in divorce.
There are other legal ramifications to such relationships. Statutory rape laws, for example, are often incongruous with minor marriage laws. In Nevada, NRS 122.025 allows for marriage of a minor younger than 16 years of age, but NRS 200.364, categorizes “statutory sexual seduction” as sex between an adult and an individual under the age of 16 (who is at least four years younger than the adult).
Some jurisdictions do appear to have marriage exceptions to statutory rape, which leads to a different logical debate entirely, as to why being married would invalidate statutory rape. Other scholars have also raised concerns about minors being unable to obtain driver’s licenses and credit cards, which may increase the risk of physical and financial abuse.
In May 2018, Delaware became the first U.S. state to ban marriage among individuals younger than 18 with no exceptions. It is anticipated that, with modern views of marriage and childhood and a better understanding of psychological and emotional development and spousal abuse, other states will soon follow suit.