Child marriage in the United States
Marriage including at least one under 18 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In the United States, a child marriage is a marriage in which at least one party is under 18 years of age—or the age of majority.[1]
Within the United States, each state and territory and the federal district set the marriage age in its jurisdiction. As of March 2024[update], in four states there is no statutory minimum age when all exemptions were taken into account. These states are California, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
As of April 2024[update], 12 states have banned underage marriages, with no exception: Delaware (2018),[2] New Jersey (2018),[3] Pennsylvania (2020),[4] Minnesota (2020),[5] Rhode Island (2021),[6] New York (2021),[7] Massachusetts (2022),[8] Vermont (2023),[9] Connecticut (2023),[10] Michigan (2023),[11] Washington (2024)[12] and Virginia (2024).[13] American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands, United States territories, have also ended child marriage in that time.[14][15] Several other U.S. states have similar legislation pending.[16]
Between 2000 and 2018, some 300,000 minors were legally married in the United States.[17] The vast majority of child marriages (reliable sources vary between 78% and 95%) were between a minor girl and an adult man.[17][18][19] In many cases, minors in the U.S. may be married when they are under the age of sexual consent, which varies from 16 to 18 depending on the state.[20] In some states, minors cannot legally divorce or leave their spouse, and domestic violence shelters typically do not accept minors.[21][22]
Historically, child marriage has been a culturally acceptable practice, but today it is increasingly viewed as a form of child sexual abuse.[23] Some international agencies, including the U.S. State Department, have declared it a human rights violation.[24] Some researchers have concluded that there are consequences to child marriages; along with the threat of sexual abuse, children may be subject to decreased education, early pregnancies, and psychological trauma.[25][26]