<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">On Nov 19, 2018, at 3:51 PM, SR Ballard <<a href="mailto:sen.otaku@gmail.com">sen.otaku@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><div dir="ltr"><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">The referenced statistics can be found in this article: <a href="http://apps.frontline.org/child-marriage-by-the-numbers/">http://apps.frontline.org/child-marriage-by-the-numbers/</a><div><br></div><div>If 1% of 200K married in 15 years are 13 years old, then that’s still more than 100 per year. </div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Be careful with averaging because over that period of time, the rate dropped and seems to have dropped quite steadily. The three states I looked at (Mississippi, West Virginia, and Washington) showed a mostly steady drop (Washington had an early small uptick then declined and never got up to 2000 levels again). And the national level matches this pattern. It’s kind of like averaging deaths from smallpox between 1900 and today. (Of course, this analogy is overstated, but that’s for effect. ;)</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div>Maybe that’s not a “crisis” but it is (or can be) a problem. </div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Peron does agree child marriage is a problem. He stated that a few times in his piece. He even has a problem with teens who aren’t underage getting married. (And I’ve seen a few of those marriages going belly up, though I know of one case where it’s being going strong for a decade or so... And, no, that’s not me.;) </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I was surprised it went on at all in the US and presumed all of it was the 16 year old getting pregnant and marrying her 17 year old paramour. And mostly that seems not far from the truth. But let’s be careful of finding out what the actual base rate is, what the trends are, and not get caught up in thinking that this is 9 year old girls being married off to creepy old men.</span></div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div>Can you sue for divorce at 14, or do you need your parents to do it? And if you have sex with your husband, is it statutory rape? </div></div></blockquote><br><div>You’ve reached the limit of my knowledge. I imagine the sex issue is not a problem given that the state is blessing a relationship that typically involves sex.</div><div><br></div><div>I don’t know about divorce, but I reckon if the court is approving the marriage that that’s where the issue would be settled, even if there’s no parental approval. I don’t know enough about the low end — which is an extremely small number of people considering that we’re talking about a country of 326 million people. How many married 13 year olds have you met — presuming you live in the US? I don’t believe I’ve met any.</div><div><br></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Regards,</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dan</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Sample my Kindle books at:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://author.to/DanUst">http://author.to/DanUst</a></span></p></div></div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>