Craig Foster reviews demographic evidence related to early marriages among 19th century Mormon polygamists.
Craig L. Foster, "Assessing the Criticisms of Early-Age Latter-Day Saint Marriages," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 31 (2019): 191-232
Abstract: Critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have accused Joseph Smith and other early Latter-day Saint men of pedophilia because they married teenaged women. Indeed, they have emphatically declared that such marriages were against 19th-century societal norms. However, historians and other experts have repeatedly stated that young people married throughout the 19th-century, and such marriages have been relatively common throughout all of US history. This article examines some of the accusations of early Latter-day Saint pedophilia and places such marriages within the greater historical and social context, illustrating that such marriages were normal and acceptable for their time and place.