Josh was 15. The youngest victim was FIVE.
this was not innocent experimentation.
Geez, this whole thing reminds me of how my cousin for awhile had this thing where she’d grab my crotch frequently. During that time she was also showing me her lady bits at odd times. Who knew I was supposed to be emotionally ravaged by the experience and not merely annoyed? Who knew she wasn’t supposed to be arrested? I’d forgotten all about that until this story broke.
I also experienced a much more serious case of sexual abuse from a friend that was scarring because it was violent. That boy needed serious help and I never consented to be alone with him again after that. That one I don’t have to be reminded of. But not all touching is a federal case.
AKA, cover up a felony.
Assaults are felonies, but the majority of fisticuffs between people don’t involve the authorities. Especially when it’s kids.
And for those who say a 15 year old is accountable for his actions, does this mean you support trying 15 year olds as adults for most crimes?
It would depend on the crime but it’s been done. And he wasn’t even tried as a juvenile.
The crime was covered up until the statute of limitations had run out. No punishment.
The Duggars mentioned in the interview that they were not required to report this incident. Parents have the right to handle something like inappropriate touching as they feel is necessary. It’s part of
The greatest responsibility in the world is raising, educating and training a child in right from wrong actions. My wife and I raised two myself and it was one of the hardest and scariest things we’ve ever done. They don’t give out instruction manuals for raising kids at the hospital. We lost a lot of sleep over the years wondering if we took the right actions and if everything would turn out ok in the end. I’m so thankful we never faced anything as bad as what the Duggars faced with Josh. No ones perfect. Every parent tries the best they can to ensure their kid grows up and becomes a responsible adult.
Also, the sister who was closest to him in age was not victimised. Somehow that makes me even more uncomfortable about this.
He wasn’t held accountable AT ALL.
If your 15-year-old neighbor admitted to molesting your five-year-old (son or daughter) on multiple occasions, what would your response be? Would it be “boys will be boys LOL!” Because if that’s your reaction, you need to go to jail too.
It’s funny how suddenly 15-year-old kids are so innocent and child-like. I wish black boys could catch the same break.
Kids get away with things all the time. We’d all have juvenile records if we were sent to the police for every crime we committed.
When kids misbehave, the answer isn’t to get the government involved, it’s to teach them to behave themselves. The Duggars did that.
Yes, we all saw how well that worked in the first fifteen years.
Do you seriously believe those were the only times he gave in to his urges?
Or did he learn that it would be hidden and ignored?
ETA: And if the problem was solved, why did they build a special house to keep the boys away from the girls four years later?
[Bolding mine.]
In all the disgusting comments I’ve read about defending this trash, I think it’s imperative for these people to believe absolutely that. That despite so much that’s been found out to be wrong, there’s no way there was more. Why? Because the thought process of the reality is so much worse. No parent could do that! No truly good child could keep that up! I did bad things as a kid, surely nothing was like that. Was it? It’s not the same. And as a parent, I’ve made mistakes. That’s all they’ve done. It all has to be okay because it’s all been good enough, right? Right? RIGHT??
So, it goes back to minimizing, denial, victim blaming, scapegoating and whitewashing. So, so gross. With much more to be said about the apologists than is getting mention.
Posts like this just make me really sad. Are there really that many people out there growing up where the concept of minor/light incest is accepted? And where it’s so accepted that teen boys are so pervy that they’ll…molest a five year old but it’s okay as long as you give them a stern talking to? Where are people growing up that this is even remotely normal?
5 year olds and multiple offenses would change how I would handle this. I am not saying any level of incest is acceptable. I am saying that getting the police involved when a 14 year old cops a feel on his siter is stupidity.
This. Totally.
He did it multiple times over to several sisters including the five year old. We don’t know if he’s still doing it again. Is there anyone out there who really wants to take their word for it?
:dubious:
At the very least I sure as hell would not leave him alone with any minor kids. If the Duggars had any brains (which they damned well do not) the last thing they would have told Chester the Molester to do is take a high profile job with a sex obsessed organization like the FRC.
Some of the posts here from the usual parade of right wing apologists are horrifying. Clearly the Duggars are not the only one with a problem.
The route I would take would be counseling for everyone, and removing the boy from the home if necessary. Which is the same action I’d take if my teen was violent and kept physically attacking my five year old. This isn’t two kids close in age playing doctor, or an evenly matched minor sibling fight. If those sorts of extreme things keep happening in my household, either I’ve dropped the ball somewhere along the line, or there’s something wrong with my kid. Either way, it’s time to get some professional help.
Don’t exaggerate. It’s not like he was 12 with an airsoft gun.
What does “if necessary” mean?
It means that, in this hypothetical world where I’m one of the Duggars, I consider whether or not I can provide 24/7 supervision to the 15 year old, whether the other children feel safe in a home with him in it, and whether it would be best for him to be in the home under constant supervision or if it would be better for him to be removed from the environment.
And to clarify, I can’t hypothesize about what I would do in their exact situation where he came to them and confessed three separate times, because he would have been out long before we got to incident number three.
So Salon has an article out by a woman who was raised in the same, frankly, cult movement that the Duggars are involved in. Given the article I think this is a lot more understandable, and to be honest I think it’s most accurate to view this as an expected result from systemic brain washing and unnatural child raising behavior.
According to the woman sexual abuse of girls by their brothers and other male relatives in this cult is very widespread.
I had assumed the Duggars were just some garden variety fundies, but that isn’t the case. They follow what is called “Gothardism” which is a fundamentalist Christian movement that primarily propagates through a home schooling curriculum (as opposed to a formal church-association, but the families that adhere to the home schooling curriculum tend to establish local churches they all attend.) This is really a holistic form of upbringing that frankly, controls and distorts all aspects of the lives of children.
As the woman in the Salon article indicates, children in these homes grow up with absolutely no basic knowledge about sexuality at all. They are taught that men have uncontrollable lust that must be controlled through women not tempting men and through men engaging in deep prayer. This is up until the moment the men are assigned a wife at majority, after that the wife is essentially taught that she becomes sexual property of the husband to sate his uncontrollable lust.
Given an upbringing that represses all human sexuality and which controls all education and information (Gothard male children are not allowed to use computers at all, but oddly girls are) I frankly don’t find Josh’s behavior surprising. You’re told to repress all sexuality (without even really be told what you’re going through in terms of attraction and lust is natural), and as a boy you’re told once you get married you’ll have a life long sex slave so you at least have that to look forward to.