Progress Out of Controversy

The decision to have Orange County social workers stop recommending that teenage girls marry the adult men who impregnated them was a good one. It may increase the burden on Juvenile Court judges, requiring them to make more tough calls, but such always has been their responsibility. The new policy just means they may have to rely on others for advice more often.

In announcing the change last week, the director of Orange County’s Social Services Agency, Larry Leaman, said it was “outside the social worker’s role” to recommend marriages between underage girls and adults. Last year his agency formed a task force to study the issue, which has also drawn scrutiny from the county grand jury, the district attorney’s office, the state Department of Social Services and Gov. Pete Wilson’s office.

The inquiries came after The Times disclosed last September that some social workers, rather than recommending prosecution of the fathers for statutory rape or child abuse, had helped a number of pregnant girls marry or resume living with their adult partners. Over two years there had been at least 15 marriages or instances of renewed cohabitation. In one, a girl of 13 married a man of 20.

The task force, in developing the conclusions approved by Leaman, noted that the issue had divided social workers. Some insisted that for some girls, the marriages were the best solution, offering a chance at a more stable family life. But others were adamant that the men should be prosecuted.

Children barely into their teens should of course not be sexually active, and men who engage in sex with them are indeed guilty of a form of child abuse, not to mention statutory rape. Even if marriage results, the younger the girl the less likely the success of the union. This country already is confronted with too many out-of-wedlock births, too many teenage parents, too many failed marriages.

Whether to approve a marriage is a more difficult decision when the mother and father are older teenagers of about the same age, proclaim their desire to wed and rear their child and are supported by parents. The presiding judge of Orange County’s Juvenile Court, Ronald E. Owen, said judges will continue to ask independent court mediators to evaluate each case and provide judges with their findings. There will be no blanket policy, Owen said, but rather case-by-case judgments. That is a wise recognition of the complexity of the issue.