Re: Texas Polygamists--sf in real life?

In article <ddfr-C1EA9E.21193921042008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
David Friedman  <ddfr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>So far as I can tell, none of the young women in the Texas compound have 
>made such claims. Also, as far as I can tell, there is nothing to keep 
>women from leaving the FLDS, aside from their unwillingness to leave 
>everything familiar and plunge into a strange world. 

They must also leave their children behind.  Is that legally recognized
as a form of coercion?

>The case which resulted in Jeffs, the head of the sect, being convicted 
>of being an accessory to rape involved a woman who, some noticeable 
>while after she was married, decided she had been pressured into it. So 
>far as I could tell, there was no claim of rape in any literal sense of 
>the term.

She was 14 at the time, the man she was forced to not-quite-marry was 19,
and since no legal marriage was ever performed, he didn't have the
marriage defense against statutory rape.

She was opposed to the "marriage" from day one.  She didn't have access
to any sort of legal recourse.

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