Halimbekh, Narhulan;
Campbell, Olympia LK;
Xie, Yishan;
Erjan, Anar;
Dmitrieva, Anna;
Aisarieva, Almagul;
Zhalieva, Zhamila;
... Mace, Ruth; + view all
(2025)
Discrepancies in Self-reporting of Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan:
Concealment or misperception?
Human Nature
10.1007/s12110-025-09500-1.
(In press).
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Abstract
Bride kidnapping, where Women are abducted for marriage, persists in Kyrgyzstan despite being illegal. Although it is estimated that up to one-third of marriages in Kyrgyzstan result from abduction, the true prevalence of this practice is unknown. Estimates are based on self-reporting of a practice that has become illegal. Here we examine whether there are sex and intergenerational differences in this reporting, that reflect a changing legal and social environment that might influence the self-reporting of bride kidnapping marriage. Using data from 468 participants in two Kyrgyz villages collected through 2023, this study examines self-reporting discrepancies in kidnap marriages among married couples. Significant differences were found in how husbands and wives report their marriages: husbands often describe the marriages as consensual, while wives see them as non-consensual. These discrepancies show a convergence over time, with couples married more recently agreeing on the marriage type. Furthermore, fathers often reported their son’s marriages as consensual, while the sons themselves reported them as non-consensual, highlighting a generational divide. Our findings suggest a normative transformation driven by cohort replacement, where evolving attitudes toward consent erode the cultural mechanisms sustaining bride kidnapping. This offers insight into the evolutionary dynamics of such gender-biased harmful practices, highlighting how legal reforms and societal pressures reshape perceptions over time.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Discrepancies in Self-reporting of Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan: Concealment or misperception? |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s12110-025-09500-1 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-025-09500-1 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Forced marriage; Bride kidnapping; Kyrgyzstan; Misreport; Misperception |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10217175 |
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