Anitha, S. orcid.org/0000-0002-6918-3680 and Gupte, M. (2025) Conceptualising coercion in child/forced marriage through an intersectional lens: Narratives of survivors and practitioners in the US. Social and Legal Studies. ISSN 0964-6639
Abstract
This article examines the nature and the forms of coercion in the forced marriage of minors in the United States. 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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
Keywords: | forced marriage; child marriage; gender-based violence; agency; child abuse |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 28 Feb 2025 17:15 |
Last Modified: | 17 Apr 2025 13:54 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/09646639251325493 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:223587 |