Allowed to Exist: Reducing Harm and Humanizing Fundamentalist Mormons Through Decriminalizing Polygamy

• In Event: Lightning Talk: Policies for Protection and the Legal Safekeeping of Women

Abstract

The US launched a vigorous crusade to eradicate Mormon polygamy in the mid-nineteenth century, which led to passage of the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act of 1862 that declared polygamy a felony crime, disenfranchised polygamists, imposed fines of $500.00, and threatened imprisonment of up to 5 years. States have additionally criminalized polygamy with steep penalties, compounding the repercussions of policing polygamy on vulnerable members of polygamous communities. Criminalization has driven the Mormon practice of plural marriage largely underground, fostering an environment in which the reporting of abusive situations is discouraged because disclosure of the abuse could subject the victims involved to criminal penalties of their own. This perpetuates an enduring cycle of non-disclosure within and outsider stigmatization of polygamous communities. Drawing on fundamentalist Mormon narratives and the harm reduction concept of decriminalization that has been utilized in health and social services in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and unhealthy drug use to reduce discrimination and stigmatization while encouraging safety measures to mitigate risks associated with potentially perilous conduct, I propose that polygamy should be decriminalized throughout the US. Decriminalization allows a safer environment to be created within fundamentalist Mormon communities, reducing harm for polygamists who are vulnerable to experiencing abuse and decreasing stigmatization.

Author

• Christine Leavitt, Arizona State University