structural:scholar_edition, stylistic:tone
Laws in the United States

The United States has some very clean and concrete laws about arranged and forced marriages. According to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, “forced marriage can happen to individuals of any race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sex, age, immigration status, or national origin. It can happen to individuals from any economic or educational background." This usually happens because of religious, cultural, or social status reasons. In most cases, the families of both parties feel that the two people should get married for many different reasons, but the participants who are to be married do not want to get married. In the United States, forced marriages are not permitted at all and can be grounds for prosecution. According to The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, “...in all U.S. states, people who force someone to marry may be charged with violating state laws, including those against domestic violence, child abuse, rape, assault, kidnapping, threats of violence, stalking, or coercion." In an arranged marriage, the families of the individuals help to choose the marriage partner but overall will not force marriage upon anyone if they do not want to get married. The role of family members and their degree of involvement, therefore, is often used to distinguish between an arranged marriage and a forced marriage. For forced marriages, the family plays a part in choosing the individual the person will marry, and the participant has no agency in the matter. The United States Government is against forced marriage and sees it as a human rights abuse.