In 23 U.s. states, children under the age of 16 tie the knot. That also leaves the door open for abuse. Donna Pollard from Kentucky testified earlier in the press how she, at her sixteenth married to her 29-year-old psychological supervisor from Tennessee, who could then abused: “He made an end to my childhood. Also, Tina does her story now in the news.com.au: “It was legal kinderverkrachting”.
Tina is an American who in 2007, at the age of thirteen became pregnant of a 33-year-old man. He was not accused of rape, but got the permission for the same year in Louisville (Kentucky) with the teenage girl to marry. The next ten years of Tina’s life a hell. “He used to beat me regularly, black and blue and raped me constantly,” she says to news.com.au. They just wanted with the Australian news site to talk, if only her first name would be listed. The girl could at the time with no one and saw no way out. When she walked away, he gave her as a runaway and, the police brought her back with him. “Only much later I understood that I was a victim of legal kinderverkrachting.”
in the Meantime, the minimum age for a marriage in Kentucky on 17. The marriages where legal consent is possible. In all states, but two is the minimum age to without prior consent to marry to 18 years. Legal permission can be granted in case of pregnancy, such as in the case of Tina. In sixteen states for which uitzonderingshuwelijken no age limit. In principle, a 40-year-old man with a child under the age of ten to marry. In practice, judges in all those states, however, the absolute minimum of 14 years for boys and 12 years for girls.
Rape within marriage is legal is not always the case as rape to be considered, explains Nicholas Syrett from the news.com.au. He is a professor at Kansas University, specializing in women and gender studies. “One of the expectations within the marriage is that sex takes place,” he says. “If as a child you are married to an adult, is not seen as a crime if the sex within that marriage.” Politicians let it be according to the professor to make with the general – but deceitful – belief that marriage is the best solution for teenage pregnancies.
