When Americans think of pedophiles, they may think of an adult stalking and assaulting a child in an isolated case. But a form of pedophilia of that is often ignored—even though it affects hundreds of thousands of children—was considered “legal” in every state in the United States up until this week. Delaware became the first state in the country to officially ban child marriage by signing House Bill 337 into law, which prohibits marriage of individuals under 18 years of age. An investigation from Frontline revealed disturbing statistics, which showed that between 2000 and 2015, at least 207,459 minors were married in the United States, and an alarming number of states allowed children as young as 10 and 12 years old to marry, and in nearly 90 percent of the cases, young girls married adult men. The investigation found that the youngest children to marry were three 10-year-old girls in Tennessee in 2001, who were married to men ages 24, 25 and 31. A 74-year-old man in Alabama holds the record as being one of the oldest to marry a child, and his bride was just 14 years old.
http://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/top-news/2018-only-one-state-us-outlawed-grown-men-marrying-little-girls/
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bb22 ago
16 or 17 year olds marrying is one thing. A 10 year old marrying is Islamic level barbarism.
carmencita ago
My parents lived and were married in Europe at 18 and 19 and people say all the time that things were different there and kids got married younger. None of my relatives got married younger than that. I think a lot of people marry someone way younger for sex abuse or for a slave. This makes slavery legal. We still have slavery in this country. It is bad enough we had and have black slaves for centuries, but now we have them all colors. Shameful beyond words.
bb22 ago
I had ancestors who married very young, even in the 20th century. One pair of great great grandparents seem to have even lied on census records about their ages. Probably lied to whoever married them too. They both stayed married into old age and raised a ton of kids, even some grandkids that one of their kids wasn’t raising. My best guess is that my great great grandma was somewhere around 14-16 when she married.
carmencita ago
Well, having kids should not be a deciding factor. Many of these girls that were forced to marry by their parents were bought with a dowry. Thus poorer parents were happy to sell off their daughters. Many men wanted younger girls so they could have boys to work on the farm. Hopefully people are smarter these days since many want to keep their daughters and sons at home and not have them talked into marrying by and adult that is a good talker and groomer. Young children are not experienced enough to realize what these groomers are really after. I am not saying this was true for your grandparents, but women and girls were looked at differently in those days. They were second class citizens and shamed if not married by 20 and called spinsters at an early age.
bb22 ago
Of course women were looked at differently, it was before feminism. Men worked outside generally and women worked inside and made babies, and that was not only normal but considered ideal and natural. The whole thing about arranged marriages is a separate issue, though I don’t like the idea of anyone marrying against their will.
So my only point is if there are two rednecks in Kentucky or wherever, who are, say, 18 and 16 (like President Andrew Johnson and his wife when they married), and they want to marry, and her parents consent, I don’t see any reason in making this illegal just because some genuine perverts take advantage of the laws and marry 10 year olds. Granted, even 20 year old girls today are often dumb as bricks and not ready for responsibilities, let alone teenagers. But marriage before adolescence should be outlawed, full stop.
carmencita ago
:)