Sponsor
This research was funded by a Professional Development Fund grant from Portland State University.
Published In
Social & Legal Studies
Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
2025
Subjects
Child welfare, Gender-based violence, Forced marriage, Child marriage -- Social aspects -- United States, Violence against women -- United States, Children -- Social conditions -- United States, Child abuse, Social justice, Children -- Violence against, Poverty
Abstract
This article examines the nature and forms of coercion in the forced marriage of minors in the US. We explore: (i) direct emotional or physical force exercised by parents which is commonly underpinned by dominant constructions of gender and sexuality, a well-rehearsed theme in existing scholarship; (ii) the hitherto unexamined role of intersecting socio-economic disadvantages in vitiating consent; and (iii) how state policies/practices create conducive contexts for child/forced marriage, which is elided in existing scholarship. In extending existing conceptualisations of coercion in child/forced marriage, we explicate the ‘total burden of coercion’ through a focus on the contexts within which consent is constructed at the intersection of social relations of power based on gender, age, race/ethnicity, poverty, sexuality and state policy/practice. Our analysis also illuminates the complex nature of survivors’ girlhood decision-making in the face of coercive constraints within which their agential capacities are formulated and exercised, and risk negotiated and managed.
Rights
This is the author's accepted manuscript, also known as the post-print version. The forthcoming version of record will be available from the publisher: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/SLS
Reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses.
DOI
10.1177/09646639251325493
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43023
Citation Details
Anitha, Sundari and Manjusha Gupte. 2025. [Post-print]. “Conceptualising Coercion in Child/Forced Marriage through an Intersectional Lens: Narratives of Survivors and Practitioners in the US.” Social & Legal Studies.