If You Were the Duggars...

[robert_columbia]

@llcoolbj77

I can’t believe I am wading in to this, but here goes…

I am a public defender representing mostly juveniles; including several juvenile sex offenders. I have two small children, and most of the prosecutors I work with have small children. We often discuss what we would do if we caught our kids acting out sexually. And it is a fucking quagmire…

Literally and figuratively.

[Fotheringay-Phipps]

@llcoolbj77

Knowing all this… what would I do? If my sweet kid did something unspeakable to my other sweet kid? I don’t know. I would do everything in my power to protect both children.

FWIW, my I would speculate that most posters who are taking a hard line here are not looking at the situation realistically.

This is a combination of 1) a focus on the Duggars specifically and a desire to distance themselves from whatever the despised and resented Duggars did, and 2) not fully visualizing themselves as the parents of a molestor, and identifying more strongly with the “parents of an abuse victim” role.

But I suspect that most of these people would take a different view if it actually came to pass.

[Urbanredneck]

@llcoolbj77

I can’t believe I am wading in to this, but here goes…

I am a public defender representing mostly juveniles; including several juvenile sex offenders. I have two small children, and most of the prosecutors I work with have small children. We often discuss what we would do if we caught our kids acting out sexually. And it is a fucking quagmire.

Let me say, with some authority, that going the court route can be helpful. With the right combination of prosecutor, judge, attorney, probation officer, therapist, parents, race, socioeconomic background, and resources, there can be some real success with juvenile sex offenders. And the recidivism rates are much lower than with adults. HOWEVER, the stars do not usually align that way. Take any one of those factors out, and things can get bad really quickly.

Let’s assume Josh was caught in my jurisdiction. He is 14. He had multiple victims, with multiple incidents, and some as young as 5. He is white, with involved parents, so maybe the prosecutor would not automatically jump to certifying him as an adult. But they might try. He could not go home, so unless the family could afford residential treatment, he would be in juvenile detention. His psychosexual eval (with the facts we know) would put him at a moderate to high risk level to recidivate. If he’s lucky, he escapes with no felony convictions. If he’s not, he gets juvenile felony convictions and the juvenile registry. He is at risk, however, for being certified as an adult, prison time (in adult prison) and the adult sex offender registry. Life over. Game over. Done. And don’t forget what CPS might do with all the other kids in the home that Mom and Dad were not able to protect.

Knowing all this… what would I do? If my sweet kid did something unspeakable to my other sweet kid? I don’t know. I would do everything in my power to protect both children.

Thank you for the great insight. After reading that I am convinced the parents did the right thing by trying to handle it quietly within the family.

Could the system somehow be changed to allow therapy or something instead of going thru police and CPS and all that?

[LavenderBlue]

@Fotheringay-Phipps

FWIW, my I would speculate that most posters who are taking a hard line here are not looking at the situation realistically.

This is a combination of 1) a focus on the Duggars specifically and a desire to distance themselves from whatever the despised and resented Duggars did, and 2) not fully visualizing themselves as the parents of a molestor, and identifying more strongly with the “parents of an abuse victim” role.

But I suspect that most of these people would take a different view if it actually came to pass.

We’re talking about realism when discussing stupid fucking overbreeding morons who think one dumb book written by goat herders two thousand years ago has all the answers to life’s questions. We are not obligated to visualize ourselves as Duggars because most of us have the brains not to be so fucking stupid. As many posters have remarked, aside from everything else they made incredibly stupid decision to go on television knowing this was in their closets and knowing that it could expose both their eldest son and daughters to not only local contempt by a handful of people but serious national condemnation.

Most of us would take a different view on this issue because most of us would not have nineteen kids, let alone pimp ourselves out on national television should we do so. They have made so many poor life choices, it’s almost impossible for most rational people to even begin to understand how to unravel the mess.

[running_coach]

The freak show has been canceled.

Took long enough. They couldn’t do a financial analysis faster than six weeks?

[Sunny_Daze]

I think they waited until it wasn’t in the news anymore. Wanted less exposure. Like a press release on a Friday only the Summer Vacation version.

Didn’t want to get too hammered by the Duggars’ fan base. Shivered when I typed that. just yuck.