Rachael Clawson Assistant Professor in Social Work University of Nottingham

1. WHAT THE RESEARCH
TELLS US
Forced Marriage of
Children/Parents with Learning
Disabilities
Rachael Clawson
Assistant Professor in Social Work
University of Nottingham

2. What is Forced Marriage?
‘A marriage conducted without the valid
consent of one or both parties and where
duress is a factor.’
Adults who lack ‘capacity’ as defined under the Mental
Capacity Act 2005 are classed as not being able to
consent and any marriage they enter into is classed as
FORCED. Children under 16 CANNOT give consent in
the UK
2

3. Research project
Funded by FMU Domestic Programme fund:
Forced Marriage and Learning Disability - FMU committed to looking at
the issue in more depth with view to producing Practice Guidance for
frontline professionals
Small scale project which aimed to:
 Gain an understanding of the motivations for forced marriage of people
with learning disabilities
 Gather information on such cases
 Highlight practice issues/concerns
Demonstrated implications for frontline practitioners, strategic planners
and policy makers

4. Key Findings
 Majority of cases reported aged under 25
 One fifth still at school
 Only a minority of those aged 16 or over had capacity to
consent to marriage
 Majority of marriages take place outside the UK in
Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. However about one fifth
take place in UK
 Most cases reported by a third party
 Many families would not view the marriage as a forced
marriage or see what they are doing as wrong
“his parents said it didn’t matter that he didn’t have
capacity. They said in their culture his consent wasn’t
needed”

5. Motivators
 Obtaining a carer for the person with learning disability
 Pressure from extended family/community/ faith group
 Obtaining a visa for someone outside UK
 Marriage is a rite of passage and it might ‘normalise’
person with learning disability
 Obtain financial security for the person with learning
disability
 Cure the person of their learning
disability
 Marriage is a cultural norm
 Siblings
 Obtaining physical assistance for ageing parents

6. Consequences
Same as for all forced marriage including rape, domestic
violence, forced to undertake household chores, no freedom
etc, also -
 Abandonment – the non disabled spouse may not want to
provide their care/support and reject the person with
learning disabilities
 Non disabled spouse may not realise
they are committing a criminal offence
by having a sexual relationship with a young person over 16
without capacity to consent to sex
 The non disabled spouse may be subject to violence from
their in-law’s family should they seek to leave the marriage
 The person with a learning disability will face more
difficulties should they wish to leave the marriage

7. Warning signs
 Person with learning disability talking about marriage,
jewellery, wedding clothes
 Family member raising concerns that a relative may be/has
been forced into marriage or informing a professional that
their relative is to be married
 Family member asking front line professional to sign a
passport application form or visa immigration form
 Being taken away from the school or day centre/out of the
country without explanation.
 Change in emotional/behavioural presentation, e.g.
becoming anxious, depressed, frightened and emotionally
withdrawn or exhibiting joy/excitement.

8. Differentiating features
Person without learning
disability
 Duress always a factor
 Victim often reports self
 More females than males
reported. Support services geared
up to needs of females
 Capacity to consent, will
understand if being forced
 Can obtain support themselves, if
support required often will be in
short term
Person with learning
disability
 Duress not always a factor or
may manifest differently –
person may appear happy about
marriage
 May report self or need support.
May rely on others to recognise
and report.
 Female/male rates similar.
Services not geared up to needs
of people with learning disability
 May lack capacity to consent,
more easily coerced, not
understand being forced
 Will need ongoing support from
range of professionals, specific
and specialist support required
from refuge.

9. FMU Statistics (2013)
People with learning disabilities:
 Male: 55 (57% of 97 cases) Female: 42 (43% of 97 cases).
 Capacity: Yes: 36 No: 5 – Male: 4 (Pakistan, 3; India, 1) Female: 1 (India,
1).
 Not known to Social Services/Awaiting decision: 56
 Involved cases from 13 Countries:
(Pakistan: 38 cases; 27 Male and 11 Female; India: 22 cases; 13 Male and 9 Female;
Bangladesh: 13 cases; 6 Male and 7 Female; UK: 11 cases; 5 Male and 6 Female.
Kenya: 3 cases; 1 Male and 2 Female. Somalia: 3 cases; 3 Female: Colombia: 1
case; 1 Female. Czech Republic: 1 Case; 1 Male; Turkey: 1 Case; 1 Female;
Uganda: 1 Case; 1 Female; Jamaica: 1 Case; 1 Female; Nigeria: 1 Case; 1 Male;
The Gambia: 1 Case; 1 Male)
9

10. Follow on research project - findings
 Few (13 of 57) Safeguarding Boards had awareness of cases of actual or
threatened forced marriage of people with learning disabilities in their
area, however most could not say how many cases there had been. 3
had received requests for capacity assessments from UK Visas and
Immigration
 34 Boards considered forced marriage of children/adults with learning
disabilities to be an area on concern they needed to address, 16 said it
was not or they did not know. Where the answer was yes a number
linked the work to other issues eg HBV, CSE, a number referred to
putting in place joint protocols with other agencies
“we do not really have high numbers of concerns about forced
marriage, however we believe that it is a very important subject
and that practitioners should be aware of guidance and
understand what it is and how to respond”

11. Board confidence
Board confidence that frontline practitioners had been
equipped with the knowledge and skills to adequately
address the issue of forced marriage of people with learning
disabilities varied with 2 being very confident and 19 being
fairly confident.
“All our practitioners are well trained and
we would expect them to address this issue
should it arise, professionally”
“Feel confident that staff from the Community Learning
Disability Team have the knowledge and skills, and
management support to deal with this issue. If dealt with
in other service areas would not be so confident”

12. Board confidence
The remainder however were not confident, 8 did not provide
an answer. Lack of confidence was viewed as being linked to
lack of experience or training. Concerns were also raised
about forced marriage not being recognised as such and lack
of clarity relating to assessment of capacity:
“I believe that there is a real lack of awareness of the issue
and confusion as to the difference between arranged and
forced marriage. Also linking with issues of capacity”.
“My concern is that, although there is guidance available
for staff, it is dependant upon staff recognising that forced
marriage is an issue in a particular case”.

13. Moving forward
 Improved co-ordination between Children and Adult
Safeguarding Boards
 More Boards/practitioners/policy makers need to be aware of
issues of forced marriage per se - improved strategic planning
 Re-defining of forced marriage in relation to children and adults
with learning disabilities
 Training – consideration of specific training and issue of
learning disability needs to be incorporated into all forced
marriage training
 Range of issues need to be better understood – eg assessing
capacity, best interests (family/children), cultural awareness -
impact on frontline professionals, why families see forced
marriage as an option, provision of care and support etc

14. Contact details
Rachael Clawson
Assistant Professor in Social Work
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham
NG7 2RD
Rachael.clawson@nottingham.ac.uk