Does the South allow 13 year old girls to legally marry because of the low population in rural areas?

Question

John Mark Karr, the JonBenet psycho freak, was legally married to a thirteen year old when he was nineteen. This was reported on all the new networks.

Answer 1

In Alabama, a girl as young as 14 may mary with parent consent. I do not believe what you said about that 13 year old (at least not the legal part), please reveal your source.

This has notheing to do with low population. Its due to 14 year old girl and 14 year old guys making babies. If they cant get married then its just worse.

Answer 2

The age at which a person may legallay marry is different from state to state. Most of the laws concerning that have been on the books for generations, and date back to pre-Civil War notions of legality and morality.

The basic fact was that 13-year-old girls COULD get pregnant, and occasionally did. And the solution to that problem 150 years ago was the shotgun wedding. It was much more important back then that the child not be born out of wedlock than for the parents to be of legal age. Therefore, it had to be legal for 13-year-olds to marry.

Those laws are still on the books today for the exact same reasons: teenage girls still DO get pregnant, many families are steadfast AGAINST abortion, and the law wants to give them the POSSIBILITY to get married. Though by today's standards a 13-year-old bride would be almost criminal.

Case in fact, my grandparents were 15 and 16 when they married in 1925. My Aunt Emma was born about four months after the wedding.

If you look into many third-world nations today, many women are getting married and having children at ages that we would consider abominable. Different cultures, different morals.

Answer 3

OH LORD people, read alittle !! The age of marriage varies from state to state.

Now alot of this dates back generations ago when (don't scream) women had one "job" and one job only... marriage, birthing and raising children, and maintaining a home. Also, the life span was far lower.

ALSO, in RURAL Areas... you have that old "Farmer's Daughter" syndrome... 13-18 yr old girls with No radio, car, magazines, phone, etc... ooops, they end up in the hay-loft with a local boy and are pregnant (no condoms or Pill)... so... to make the baby LEGITIMATE in a very church-oriented society... SHOT GUN WEDDING !!
Women often died in childbirth and a man would need a new wife to raise his children AND have more children... the more boys you have, the more farm land you can work.

Life was FAR more simple then... and (again don't scream) a 13 yr old was fertile. Young ladies for the most part didn't go to school and had no job opportunities... parents would marry a girl off to get her out of the house !! One less mouth to feed, AND the possiblities of land, wealth through her new husband.

Why does it continue today ? I have no idea.

Answer 4

No.

Population was not a factor with regard to the marriage approval involving a 13 year old girl and John M. Karr.

Answer 5

In the state of TN, both parties must be at least 16 and have parental consent to get married. Low population in the rural areas has nothing to do with it. Also bear in mind that some religions assign young girls as brides to older men. i don't know how John Karr got away with marrying a13 year old girl, unless her parents consented or maybe their marriage wasn't recognized by the courts (ie: common law)

Answer 6

See http://snurl.com/girl13 and compare http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8716780/

In general, states do not punish sex between same-age post-pubescent teens. The normal allowance is one-year of age difference at early teens and two years at age 16.

Traditionally, with parental permission and the authorisation of a family court judge, any pregnant teen could marry. The two cases I linked above are like that. Some states have pulled away from that traditional rule; and the question of whether a marriage where legal is void for "nonage" (the technical term) in a different state where they are domiciled is an open one. (The couple would be advised to marry again at 16 or 18 to avoid legitimacy, inheritance and tax issues.)

A state that impedes or effectively bans abortion (much of the South plus South Dakota) cannot logically ban marriage of pregnant adolescents.

The issue is complicated by common-law marriage which still exists in a number of states. The fact that most young married teens may live with parents shouldn't affect this.

Answer 7

Some states in the south have very low age of consent to marry statutes. I'm not sure it is low population, or simply bowing to the inevitable. In states with such an extreme as 18, they accept that almost no girl is a virgin when she marries. The more value you place of marital virginity, the lower you make the age of consent, in order not to torture the poor teenagers with their hormones raging any more than necessary.

At least that's the spin I make on it. Maybe there are more sinister reasons, but I think it really is, "well, they're not going to wait, so . . ."

Answer 8

Its not just the south, every state has legal ages of marriage. Really, the southern states are in line with the rest of the US on age limits. I think its Kansas where you only have to be 12? To me those laws are outdated, and need to either be revisited or the age limit raised. Every state in the US has outdated laws, that really no longer apply, but can still be enforced.

Answer 9

I don't know about 13, but Georgia and other states do allow marriage as young as 15.I don't think it has anything to do with population in rural areas it is state law so it applies everywhere regardless of population.

Answer 10

where did you get this 13 years old can marry in the south