According to a New York magazine article, an 18-year-old woman plans to marry her formerly estranged, biological father and move to New Jersey, which doesn't have a legal prohibition against adult incest.After an 18-year-old woman from the Great Lakes region purportedly told a magazine that she plans to move to New Jersey to live as a married couple with her formerly estranged biological father because incest isn't illegal here, the response is sometimes one of disgust. Sometimes one of concern.
But it's almost always one of confusion and surprise. Is incest really legal in New Jersey?
Several news sites and blogs in recent days have reported on the interview in New York magazine of the unnamed 18-year-old. She describes reuniting with her father, whom she'd last seen when she was around 5 years old, and discovering the two had romantic feelings for one another.
According to the New York magazine story, the two have developed a sexual relationship and have been together for two years. The teen says she wants her kids "to be in a happy and stable household with two people who love them."
So ... is incest really legal in New Jersey?
Sexual relationships among adult relatives are legal, but they weren't always. Incest was outlawed in New Jersey until 1979, when the state enacted a new criminal code that left a section planned for incest blank, according to Peter Gilbreth, a Morristown-based attorney who handles both criminal and family cases.
“It’s really surprising that the statute was not enacted, in light of a long legislative history prohibiting that conduct,” Gilbreth said.
Under the old statute, incest was a crime that carried a maximum penalty of 15 years in state prison, Gilbreth said.
However, New Jersey law still bars a person from marrying his or her parent or child, brother or sister, niece or nephew, or aunt or uncle. Any such marriage would be considered void. The 18-year-old who spoke to New York magazine said she doesn't plan to make the "marriage" legally binding — only to live as a married couple.
Do other states bar incest?
Almost all do, though the particulars of which sexual relationships are barred vary from state to state. In most states, sexual relations between a parent and child, regardless of age, would be illegal. Rhode Island decriminalized incestuous relationships in 1989, though like in New Jersey, marriages are banned and void.
The New York Post reports that in October of last year, the New York's top court allowed an uncle and niece to get married, even though such marriages had been illegal in the state for more than 100 years.
In 2013, the National District Attorneys Association compiled a state-by-state breakdown of incest laws.
Are there any situations in New Jersey where incest would still be illegal?
Incest is legal in New Jersey "for people over 18, as long as it's a consensual relationship," Gilbreth said.
But restrictions apply, just as they do for couples with no blood relation. Sexual relations between any adult and anyone under the age of 16 are defined under New Jersey law as sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault.
New Jersey law also bars adults from having sexual relationships with 16- and 17-year-olds, if the adult has supervisory power over the minor. And sexual relations between relatives under 18 are barred explicitly.
Former Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi told NJ Advance Media that a parent who has sex with a child under 18 could also be charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
Bianchi said that in the case of the 18-year-old woman in the magazine story, "an inventive prosecutor" could also argue that the woman may have been mentally incapacitated if the prosecutor believed she'd been a victim of abuse.
Does this come up often?
Attorney Thomas Zampino of Snyder & Sarno in Roseland, who has been a family court judge in Essex County for 22 years, said that in most cases of alleged incest he has encountered, a child was abused or neglected. In those situations, the defendant is charged criminally with sexual assault, child endangerment or child neglect
"A father or grandfather would be abusing an underage child," he said.
Among the divorce cases he handled, he said, allegations of incest came up in only one case he could recall, but he said they were never proven. The allegations came up in a child custody battle, he said.
Is it true children of incestuous relationships are more likely to have birth defects?
In a 2012 post for Psychology Today, Western Carolina University Professor Hal Herzog says almost everyone is instinctively repelled by the thought of sex with a mother, father or sibling. And he said human's aren't alone in that reaction. — Animals from cockroaches to chimpanzees share our "yuck" response when it comes to the idea of sex with close relatives.
Herzog said there's good reason for that instinct. He cited a review of four studies that found only a small increase in birth defects among the children of married cousins, but a huge defect among the children of first-degree relatives.
"Forty percent of the children were born with either autosomal recessive disorders, congenital physical malformations, or severe intellectual deficits. And another 14 percent of them had mild mental disabilities," Herzog wrote. "In short, the odds that a newborn child who is the product of brother-sister or father-daughter incest will suffer an early death, a severe birth defect or some mental deficiency approaches 50 percent.
Ben Horowitz may be reached at bhorowitz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @HorowitzBen. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Louis C. Hochman may be reached at lhochman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LouisCHochman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.