The European parliament commissioned a study on forced marriage in 2015, which has been released in February this year under the titel "Forced marriage from a gender perspective". In addition to forced marriages in a legal context, the study also examines informal, religious or ritual "marriage-like" engagements. Especially young women are affected by these, establishing a strong link between forced and early marriages and grapsing both as forms of gender-based violence.
The study offers early, EU-wide comparative figures as well as more detailed profiles on Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Spain and Slovakia.
The study can be found on the Website of the European Parliament.