终止美国的儿童婚姻 America's Child Marriage Problem

IN the United States today, thousands of children under 18 have recently taken maritAl vows — mostly girls married to adult men, often with approval from local judges. In at least one case, a 10-year-old boy was legally married.

在当今美国，近年有数以千计不满18岁的孩子立下了结婚誓言——主要是女孩嫁给成年男人，他们通常会获得地方法官的许可。至少在一个案例中，一名10岁的男孩已经合法结婚。

How is this possible? The minimum marriage age in most states is 18, but every state allows exceptions under which children under age 18 can wed.

这怎么可能呢？大多数州的最低结婚年龄为18岁，但每个州都允许存在例外，允许18岁以下的未成年人结婚。

The first common exception is for children marrying with “parental consent.” Most states allow children age 16 or 17 to marry if their parents sign the marriage license application.

第一个常见的例外就是子女在“父母同意”的情况下可以结婚。大多数州允许16或17岁的孩子结婚，只要他们的父母签署了结婚证申请书。

Of course, one person’s “parental consent” can be another’s “parental coercion,” but state laws typically do not call for anyone to investigate whether a child is marrying willingly. Even in the case of a girl’s sobbing openly while her parents sign the application and force her into marriage, the clerk usually has no authority to intervene. In fact, in most states there are no laws that specifically forbid forced marriage.

当然，某人的“父母同意”可能意味着另一个人遭到“父母强迫”，但州法律通常不要求任何人调查孩子是否自愿结婚。哪怕一个女孩当场在哭泣，看着她的父母签署申请书，强迫她结婚，工作人员通常也无权干涉。实际上，在大多数州，没有法律明确禁止强迫婚姻。

The second common marriage-age exception is for children marrying with judicial approval. This exception lowers the marriage age below 16 in many states, and many states do not specify a minimum age. Judges in those states can allow the marriage even of an elementary school student.

第二个常见的例外是未成年人在获得司法批准的情况下可以结婚，这种例外将很多州的结婚年龄降至16岁以下。这些州的法官甚至可以允许小学生结婚。

But judges would never do that, right?

但法官们绝不会这么做，对吗？

Unchained at Last, a nonprofit I founded to help women escape from arranged, forced marriages, recently retrieved health department data on the ages of people married in New Jersey, where 16- and 17-year-olds may wed with parental consent, and children under 15 may marry with judicial approval.

我创办了非营利组织“终于挣脱链锁”(Unchained at Last)，以帮助女性逃脱包办、强迫的婚姻。我们最近检索了卫生部门有关新泽西州结婚年龄的数据，在该州，16、17岁的未成年人在获得父母同意的情况下就可以结婚，而15岁的孩子获得司法批准后也可以结婚。

Unfortunately, the available records do not include any identifying details about marriages beyond the ages of the participants. Nevertheless, the data show that 3,499 children were married in New Jersey between 1995 and 2012. Most were age 16 or 17 and married with parental consent, but 178 were between ages 10 and 15, meaning a judge approved their marriages.

遗憾的是，可获取的记录中不包括除年龄外的任何婚姻细节。尽管如此，这些数据显示，在1995年至2012年间，新泽西州有3499名未成年人结婚。其中大多数是16或17岁，在父母同意的情况下结婚，但有178人的结婚年龄在10岁到15岁之间，这意味着法官允许他们结婚。

Shockingly, 91 percent of the children were married to adults, often at ages or with age differences that could have triggered statutory-rape charges, not a marriage license. A judge in 2006 approved the marriage of a 10-year-old boy to an 18-year-old woman. A judge in 1996 allowed a 12-year-old girl to marry a 25-year-old man.

令人震惊的是，91%的孩子与成人结婚，其年龄之小、或年龄差距之大，本应触发法定强奸罪的指控，而不是一纸结婚证。2006年，一名法官批准一名10岁的男孩与18岁女性结婚。1996年，一名法官允许一名12岁的女孩嫁给25岁的男子。

Based on my own experience working with forced-marriage victims across the United States, I am sure many of these children had to marry against their will. Forced marriage is a widespread but often ignored problem in the United States. A survey by the Tahirih Justice Center, an NGO that provides services to immigrant women and girls, identified as many as 3,000 known or suspected forced-marriage cases just between 2009 and 2011, many involving girls under age 18. Tactics used against the victims included threats of ostracism, beatings or death.

根据我自己与美国强迫婚姻受害者共事的经历，我确定很多孩子被迫结婚。在美国，强迫婚姻是一个广泛但通常遭到忽视的问题。为移民的女性和女孩提供服务的非政府组织塔希莉法律服务中心(Tahirih Justice Center)所做的调查发现，仅在2009年至2011年期间就有多达3000个已知或涉嫌强迫婚姻的案例，其中很多女孩不满18岁。对付受害者的手段包括对其发出驱逐、殴打或死亡的威胁。

Forced and child marriages happen almost everywhere, yet only 10 states or jurisdictions have specific laws that can be used to prevent or punish forced marriage. The Tahirih survey focused on immigrants, and it identified child marriages or forced marriages, or both, in immigrant communities from 56 countries of origin in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, but it also identified such marriage in so-called American families.

几乎每个地方都存在强迫婚姻和童婚，但只有10个州或司法管辖区有能够用来防止或惩处强迫婚姻的具体法律。塔希莉法律服务中心的调查侧重于移民，该调查发现来自亚洲、非洲、欧洲及美洲的56个国家的移民社区存在童婚或强迫婚姻，或者两者都有，但也发现所谓的美国家庭也存在此类婚姻。

The survey found child marriage or forced marriage, or both, in families of many faiths, including Muslim, Christian (particularly Catholic), Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh. I have seen child and forced marriage in the Orthodox Jewish community, and I know survivors from Mormon and Unification Church backgrounds.

该调查发现，存在童婚或强迫婚姻或两者都有的家庭遵从各种信仰，包括穆斯林、基督教徒（特别是天主教徒）、印度教徒、佛教徒及锡克教徒。我看到正统犹太教社区存在童婚和强迫婚姻，我遇到过摩门教、统一教背景的受害者。

Parents give many reasons for forcing their children into marriage, including controlling the children’s sexuality and behavior and protecting “family honor.” Often families use forced marriage to enhance their status or gain economic security.

父母给出了很多迫使孩子结婚的理由，比如控制孩子的性取向和行为，保护“家族荣誉”。这些家庭通常利用强迫婚姻提高他们的地位或获得经济保障。

The New Jersey data show that 90 percent of the children married were girls, which is consistent with global trends. Across the world, child marriage and forced marriage disproportionately affect girls and women.

新泽西州的数据显示，未成年人结婚有90%是女孩，这符合全球的趋势。在世界各地，童婚和强迫婚姻对女孩和女性的影响尤其大。

Unchained at Last also requested health department data on the ages of people recently married in New York State, where 16- and 17-year-olds may wed with “parental consent” and 14- and 15-year-olds may wed with judicial approval. The data show that 3,853 children were married between 2000 and 2010.

“终于挣脱链锁”组织还从卫生部取得了纽约州最近结婚人群的年龄数据，在该州，16、17岁的子女获得“父母同意”就可以结婚，15岁的孩子获得司法批准也可以结婚。这些数据显示，在2000至2010年期间，有3853名未成年人结婚。

Data after 2010 excludes New York City, where statistics are kept separately. Still, the state data show that in 2011 alone, a 14-year-old married a 26-year-old, a 15-year-old was wed to a 28-year-old, another 15-year-old was wed to a 25-year-old and a 15-year-old married someone age “35 to 39.” All of those marriages were approved by New York judges.

2010年以后的数据不包括纽约市的数据，其数据被分开保存。但该州的数据显示，仅在2011年，一名14岁的孩子跟26岁的成人结婚，一名15岁的孩子跟28岁的成人结婚，还有一名15岁的孩子跟年龄在“35岁到39岁之间”的成人结婚。这些婚姻都获得了纽约法官的批准。

Globally, 88 percent of countries set 18 as the minimum marriage age, but over half allow minor girls to marry with “parental consent,” according to the World Policy Center. More than 700 million women alive today were married before 18, including some 250 million who wed before 15, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. Most live in South Asia or sub-Saharan Africa, but as these new numbers show, too many live right here in the United States.

据世界政策中心(World Policy Center)的数据，从全球来看，88%的国家将最低结婚年龄设定在18岁，但有一半的国家允许未成年女孩在“在父母同意的情况下”结婚。据联合国儿童基金会(United Nations Children’s Fund)的统计，逾7亿在世女性在18岁前结婚，其中有大约2.5亿名女性在15岁前结婚。大多数人生活在南亚或撒哈拉以南的非洲，但就像新数据显示的那样，在美国就有太多这样的女性。

Marriage is a legal contract and it should be reserved for adults. The dangers of child marriage are, after all, very clear: A recent report found that child marriage “undermines girls’ health, education and economic opportunities, and increases their risk of experiencing violence.”

婚姻是一种法律契约，应该是仅针对成年人的。毕竟，童婚的危险显而易见：最近的一份报告发现，童婚“损害女孩的健康、教育及经济机会，增加她们遭遇暴力的风险”。

The solution is relatively simple. State legislators should eliminate the archaic legal exceptions that allow children to wed. This is the only way to end child and forced marriage in the United States.

解决方法相对比较简单。州立法者应该清除陈旧的允许未成年人结婚的法律例外。这是在美国终结童婚及强迫婚姻的唯一方式。