In Missouri, 7,342 teens under 18 were married from 2000 to 2014, according to an analysis by the Tahirih Justice Center, an abuse prevention group that cites Missouri as having one of the highest child marriage rates in the nation.

The center said about 85 percent of those married Missouri teens were girls. In 2007, 52 Missouri girls under 15 were married, according to the group’s research. In about a third of those marriages, the groom was over 21, with some in their 30s, 40s and 50s. Just 15 of the grooms were under the age of 18.

Advocacy groups such as the Tahirih Justice Center point out that when minors marry older adults they engage in relationships that would otherwise amount to statutory rape.

In Missouri, a person 21 or older can be charged with statutory rape for having sex with a child under the age of 17. That’s particularly problematic when a visibly pregnant 15-year-old girl shows up to apply for a marriage license with a significantly older groom, said Jones, who saw this firsthand in her office.

Recorders of Deeds are not mandated reporters of child abuse in Missouri, but Jones wonders whether they should be, given what they see.

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