ABSTRACT

According to the Turkish Civil Code, men and women cannot marry unless they are 17 years old. However, the judge may allow the marriage of men or women who have reached the age of 16 for extraordinary and so important reasons. The aim of this study was to examine the sociodemographic characteristics of early marriage appliers according to civil law who underwent a forensic medical assessment.

According to article 124 of Turkish civil law, 39 patients who applied for early marriage and who underwent forensic medical assessment were investigated for sociodemographic characteristics related to age, gender, education and marriage.

All of the cases were female and %53,8 (n=21) stated that the actual birth dates and population records were different. Bone age was determined in all cases, %43,6 (n=17) were found to be older than identity age in the average of 1,9 (±0,9, min:1, max: 4) years. %69.2 (n=27) of the cases were primary school graduates and %94,9 (n=37) had previously left their education independent of the marriage process. It was determined that %46,2 (n=18) of the cases were married and %48,7 (n=19) were pregnant.

In our region, all of the cases applied for early marriage according to civil law are women and a significant part of them left their education at the primary school level. Almost half of the cases are different from their actual birth dates and identity ages in which are 2 years younger in the average.

Keywords: Early; Marriage; Civil Code; Age.