Josh Duggar acknowledges he sexually molested underage girls including some of his sisters,

[credoconsolans]

Still young, and also important that he was close in age to the girls. I do not think there is any indication he is into young girls as an adult.

Still young but not brainless. Some of these girls were asleep, when he did it, so he knew what he was doing was wrong.

And yes, his parents covered it up, let the statue of limitations run out so their daughters could do nothing - the fucks, and paraded themselves on TV as a model, Christian family.

Doesn't SOL only start running when the alleged victims turn 18?

Depends on the state. Some are from the date of the occurrence, others on date of the 'discovery' that they were abused. Apparently the parents knew.

And now he has children of his own. How do we know he's not doing it again?

Do you have any indication that he is into young girls as an adult?

Hard to say since he was never evaluated professionally. So we don't know if this was just him being a cruel bully or a sexual predator.

 

[RavenSky]

Still young, and also important that he was close in age to the girls...

Close in age? Per some of the reports, the age of the youngest girl he molested was 4-years old. And at least one of the girls was asleep when he molested her.

When Josh was 15, the girls would have been 13, 12, 10, 9, and 5. Now I know you assume the girls all consented (because females are always at fault) but not even you would say it is acceptable to sexually molest a 10 year old or 5 year old or a female while she is asleep. Would you?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

While the numbers 15 and 10 are close, the ages most certainly are not. To give it a little perspective, a 15 year old is in high school, the 10 year old is in elementary school. And for this to involve that many girls, as young as 5? What are the SOL for the parents hiding this? And did his fiancee know about the age range?

But we know that females have lied about sexual abuse/assault in the pass, so it shouldn't be hard to see what actually happened.

 

[ronburgundy]

Well, unlike in the cases you are trying to draw analogy to and thus discredit any notion of their ever being false accusations, he actually confessed to it both now and previously to the cops.

IOW, he is guilty and our knowledge of his guilt has zero bearing on the probable guilt in any other case.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I want to know who he is apologizing to.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

The producers and his family for not keeping a lid on the case and losing all of those precious dollars.

 

[Angry Floof]

I wonder if they're now wondering if all this negative attention is God's punishment for having had a gay person in their home.

 

[crispy]

Huckabee's actually got a point here. Crimes one makes when they're a minor shouldn't follow them into adulthood. If there's an issue with how it was handled, that's an issue with Duggar, not an issue with Duggar's parents.

I actually agree 100%, and feel sorry for the whole bunch, maybe not his parents, but then again, what were they supposed to do?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Huckabee's actually got a point here. Crimes one makes when they're a minor shouldn't follow them into adulthood. If there's an issue with how it was handled, that's an issue with Duggar, not an issue with Duggar's parents.

I actually agree 100%, and feel sorry for the whole bunch, maybe not his parents, but then again, what were they supposed to do?

I assume you besides having concern for the victims and not cover up crimes.

 

[fromderinside]

I assume you besides having concern for the victims and not cover up crimes.

What? Concern for the victims? That doesn't seem very christian to me. Look at what leaders like the Elder Duggers did. Pray for the sinner. Put aside the ones upon which he sinned. Praise the lord.

 

[Ford]

Huckabee's actually got a point here. Crimes one makes when they're a minor shouldn't follow them into adulthood. If there's an issue with how it was handled, that's an issue with Duggar, not an issue with Duggar's parents.

I actually agree 100%, and feel sorry for the whole bunch, maybe not his parents, but then again, what were they supposed to do?

I might be compelled to feel sorry for Josh Duggar if he'd been held to account for his crimes. If the story came out that he'd been busted as a teenager, was arrested, charged, tried, and served some sort of sentence after being found guilty, I would agree with Tom that the crime should not follow him into adulthood.

However, in this case it appears that young Mr. Duggar did the crime, but not the time. He got off scot-free because his family arranged to have a friendly cop do the "investigation," have a family friend (and as it turns out, pervert) take Josh to a "Jesus would be angry if he found you diddling kids" camp, and the whole thing was swept under the rug in a way that would impress even the Catholic church.

Yeah, gotta mention the Catholic church when you're talking about child molestation. It's the rules.


I find it hard to feel sorry for the guy because he got away with his crimes. Most people who aren't born into privilege or power and get into trouble as a juvenile usually find themselves in the junior version of the criminal justice system. Kids who did far less than Josh wind up getting punished far worse than he did. In fact he didn't get punished at all. I find it extra hard to feel sorry for his family because they helped him get away with his crimes...and one they were victims of!

A few years ago, my kid (who was not a juvenile) got picked up for a DUI. I was disappointed. Her mother was furious. Her boyfriend's mom paid the bail, I paid to get the car out of the impound yard, and the rest was on her. She went to jail, had to pay a hefty fine, and have an interlock on her car. It was a mistake, and one she's ashamed of, but it would be a mistake to hold it against her because she did her time and was held to account for her actions. She learned a very expensive lesson.



Josh Duggar was taught that when you do something horribly wrong, just make it go away.

 

[Toni]

I think it matters a great deal that Josh was very young--14 and also that given how he was raised, he had very little or absolutely zero context for what he was feeling as he underwent puberty, much less any guidance for how to deal with newly emerging sexual feelings and of course, very little or no guidance to considering that girls had any bodily or emotional or even spiritual integrity of their own or any real say over what happened to them and their lives. The way he was raised: men are in charge and women should be obedient to men and exist to serve men.

Because he was 14 and also because of how he was raised, I think that counseling--with a real psychologist or psychiatrist who was specifically trained to deal with 'youthful offenders' would have been more appropriate than criminal charges. But only up until someone told and he was found out. After that, he knew it was wrong, for certain.

Of course, the 'treatment' his parents sought for him was not good and as it turned out, was being conducted by someone who himself was guilty of sexual assault of children. This is something his parents surely did not know. But it is not at all surprising that they sought out 'help' for their son that confirmed their own beliefs.

I have no love or admiration for the Duggar parents or their lifestyle or their 'faith.' I know about the Duggars almost exclusively through TV promos but I have only watched part of one episode, which by coincidence, heavily featured a now adult and married Josh, but it was enough for me to see that he was one messed up person and had no idea how to deal with normal emotions. At the time, I remember thinking about how messed up he was. I had no idea how true that was.

Which brings me to the most salient point: Without good, effective counseling from a legitimate, trained mental health professional with specific skill and training in this area, he's not likely to have recovered. Instead, he's more incidents waiting to happen and he's no longer a child himself.

Sadly, it is doubtful that his victims have had any such professional counseling, either. Or their families.

 

[Derec]

While the numbers 15 and 10 are close, the ages most certainly are not. To give it a little perspective, a 15 year old is in high school, the 10 year old is in elementary school. And for this to involve that many girls, as young as 5? What are the SOL for the parents hiding this? And did his fiancee know about the age range?

Where do you get 10 and even 5? From what I have seen it was 12 and 13 year olds which would indeed be close in range.

But we know that females have lied about sexual abuse/assault in the pass, so it shouldn't be hard to see what actually happened.

Well he admitted to it, so why derail? There are threads on false accusations already.

 

[Derec]

Close in age? Per some of the reports, the age of the youngest girl he molested was 4-years old.

What reports would that be?

And at least one of the girls was asleep when he molested her.

I am not trying to say he is innocent or that he should not have been held to account. My point is that since he was a kid himself the fact that he molested other kids is not indicative that he is into kids now like the poster I was responding to suggested.

When Josh was 15, the girls would have been 13, 12, 10, 9, and 5. Now I know you assume the girls all consented (because females are always at fault) but not even you would say it is acceptable to sexually molest a 10 year old or 5 year old or a female while she is asleep. Would you?

I did not say anything about it being "acceptable". It obviously isn't. I also didn't hear anything about any 5 year olds either (got a source?).

 

[RavenSky]

Josh Dugger "was a kid himself"

Tamir Rice... not so much

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What reports would that be?

And at least one of the girls was asleep when he molested her.

I am not trying to say he is innocent or that he should not have been held to account. My point is that since he was a kid himself the fact that he molested other kids is not indicative that he is into kids now like the poster I was responding to suggested.

When Josh was 15, the girls would have been 13, 12, 10, 9, and 5. Now I know you assume the girls all consented (because females are always at fault) but not even you would say it is acceptable to sexually molest a 10 year old or 5 year old or a female while she is asleep. Would you?

I did not say anything about it being "acceptable". It obviously isn't. I also didn't hear anything about any 5 year olds either (got a source?).

How old was Josh when he first molested his sisters? Have you read any of the news reports to know the answer to this?

 

[RavenSky]

What reports would that be?

And at least one of the girls was asleep when he molested her.

I am not trying to say he is innocent or that he should not have been held to account. My point is that since he was a kid himself the fact that he molested other kids is not indicative that he is into kids now like the poster I was responding to suggested.

When Josh was 15, the girls would have been 13, 12, 10, 9, and 5. Now I know you assume the girls all consented (because females are always at fault) but not even you would say it is acceptable to sexually molest a 10 year old or 5 year old or a female while she is asleep. Would you?

I did not say anything about it being "acceptable". It obviously isn't. I also didn't hear anything about any 5 year olds either (got a source?).

The police report suggests that four of Josh’s sisters were victims. In 2002, there were five sisters living in the Duggar house: Jana, then 12; Jill, 11; Jessa, 10; Jinger, 9; and Joy-Anna, 5.

http://defamer.gawker.com/the-web-has-known-about-josh-duggar-for-years-when-did-1706258269

The oldest girl was only 12, not 13. The youngest was 5 (some reports say 4)

 

[crispy]

I assume you besides having concern for the victims and not cover up crimes.

What? Concern for the victims? That doesn't seem very christian to me. Look at what leaders like the Elder Duggers did. Pray for the sinner. Put aside the ones upon which he sinned. Praise the lord.

I don't know anything about the person or the family, but this is quite a moral dilemma, which is why I phrased it as I did. I don't feel sorry for his parent, I feel sorry for their kids. I don't know anything about the family really, but it seems pretty strange from what I've read here.

And in this exact case when he is a minor, and the victim is his sister, I think it might actually be alright to keep it in the family, and not to tell the police. Assuming he's told quite clearly whats acceptable behaviour and whats not, and make it 100% clear to both him and his sister that what he did was wrong. I don't think its gonna help the sister in any way to involve the police either. Had it been rape, then yes, but genital fondling hmm maybe maybe not. Either way, I don't see it as clear cut as you guys. When would it have been "ok"? 11 year old boy fondling sister? 12 year old? 13? 14 appearently.

Just curious, what would have been the consequences of involving the police, for him?

 

[Bronzeage]

What? Concern for the victims? That doesn't seem very christian to me. Look at what leaders like the Elder Duggers did. Pray for the sinner. Put aside the ones upon which he sinned. Praise the lord.

I don't know anything about the person or the family, but this is quite a moral dilemma, which is why I phrased it as I did. I don't feel sorry for his parent, I feel sorry for their kids. I don't know anything about the family really, but it seems pretty strange from what I've read here.

And in this exact case when he is a minor, and the victim is his sister, I think it might actually be alright to keep it in the family, and not to tell the police. Assuming he's told quite clearly whats acceptable behaviour and whats not, and make it 100% clear to both him and his sister that what he did was wrong. I don't think its gonna help the sister in any way to involve the police either. Had it been rape, then yes, but genital fondling hmm maybe maybe not. Either way, I don't see it as clear cut as you guys. When would it have been ok? 10 year old boy fondling sister? 11 year old? 12? 14 appearently.

Just curious, what would have been the consequences of involving the police, for him?

Most likely, the home would be visited by a child protection officer and a report would be given to the family court judge. Josh and his sister/victims would be given court ordered therapy. It definitely would have had an impact on the TV show.

I would be curious to know, exactly what Josh's life was like at this point in time? What kind of sexual information was he given? Was it the Victorian Era prohibitions against masturbation? What were Josh's sexual outlets? If the Duggar household was a place where natural development was ignored and natural desires were repressed, how did this affect or shape Josh's behavior?

 

[funinspace]

I don't know anything about the person or the family, but this is quite a moral dilemma, which is why I phrased it as I did. I don't feel sorry for his parent, I feel sorry for their kids. I don't know anything about the family really, but it seems pretty strange from what I've read here.

And in this exact case when he is a minor, and the victim is his sister, I think it might actually be alright to keep it in the family, and not to tell the police. Assuming he's told quite clearly whats acceptable behaviour and whats not, and make it 100% clear to both him and his sister that what he did was wrong. I don't think its gonna help the sister in any way to involve the police either. Had it been rape, then yes, but genital fondling hmm maybe maybe not. Either way, I don't see it as clear cut as you guys. When would it have been ok? 10 year old boy fondling sister? 11 year old? 12? 14 appearently.

Just curious, what would have been the consequences of involving the police, for him?

Most likely, the home would be visited by a child protection officer and a report would be given to the family court judge. Josh and his sister/victims would be given court ordered therapy. It definitely would have had an impact on the TV show.

The show didn't start until 2008, so it probably would have been DOA...

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Kind of an offshoot of the whole circus…but I find it odd how a person who got caught doing something immoral/illegal, grows up to join a group dedicated to creating more legal frameworks to regulate other people’s morality. That is the last thing I would want to do, after creating such a skeleton in my closet. Why not join a charitable group like Habitat for Humanity or such?

 

[Toni]

Most likely, the home would be visited by a child protection officer and a report would be given to the family court judge. Josh and his sister/victims would be given court ordered therapy. It definitely would have had an impact on the TV show.

The show didn't start until 2008, so it probably would have been DOA...

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Kind of an offshoot of the whole circus…but I find it odd how a person who got caught doing something immoral/illegal, grows up to join a group dedicated to creating more legal frameworks to regulate other people’s morality. That is the last thing I would want to do, after creating such a skeleton in my closet. Why not join a charitable group like Habitat for Humanity or such?

One contributing factor to the fact that Josh Duggar molested his sisters and others has to do with the structure of their particular brand of Christianity. Often, such incidents are blamed upon Satan tempting the good, righteous.

The way to deal with such evils as what Josh committed is to trust and lean on the lord and to pray, repent, seek guidance from elders, etc. None of which is a bad thing but what is generally missing the important component of competent, skilled psychiatric help for molester and victims.

If you believe that you have done bad or evil things, and you wish to be forgiven and to go on a better path--and you don't believe in modern psychiatry--would be to pray, seek guidance, and rededicate yourself to righteous causes. This allows you to bypass the difficult consideration that perhaps that your church's teachings about purity and also about gender roles are in fact, flawed.

I actually hold Josh relatively blameless in this choice. The molestation is a different matter. I'm talking only about what kind of consequences or counseling he would have had. At 14, he would have been very much under the control of his parents and would have been very much inclined to do what they said. What choice would he have? It isn't as though he had a lot of context or contact with the outside world and knew what options he had. Or that he really needed some skilled professional help to sort out his feelings about his budding sexuality and almost certainly, anger issues and at the very least, get other viewpoints about healthy gender roles.

Throw in a lot of denial--present in ALL of us--and it is easy to see how everyone is willing to believe that they were successful in their attempts to pray away the sin.

I'm not defending anything. Just trying to explain some of the mindset and workings of this sort of thing.