Ex reality TV star Josh Duggar was found guilty of both receiving and possessing child sexual abuse materials in a trial that had lasted ten days on Thursday the 9th December. Duggar came to fame as the eldest child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, who finally stopped after nineteen children, the youngest of whom is still only twelve. The family came to prominence with a couple of TLC specials, 14 Kids and Counting and then finally a series, which ran from 2008 until 2015.
Duggar had partitioned a computer at the car lot he owned and was found guilty of possessing child sexual abuse material that the prosecution said was ‘among the worst of the worst’. He faces up to twenty years in jail and up to $500,000 in fines. This isn’t the first time that Josh Duggar has faced scandal; in 2015 he lost his job with the Family Research Council (FRC) when allegations of him molesting five girls – one as young as five – came to light. The FRC is a fundamentalist Protestant group that lobbies against, among other things, access to abortion and LGBTQ rights. Duggar working for them shows up his own bigoted beliefs. Josh was also implicated in the Ashley Madison scandal; he was a user of the website and had a paid subscription and admitted being unfaithful to his wife, Anna. In a statement at the time he admitted that his actions were “hypocritical” while he was “espousing faith and family values”.
The details around the allegations of molestation are murky; In Touch magazine made a Freedom of Information request and the names of the victims weren’t redacted as they should have been. Two of Josh’s sisters, Jill and Jessa, were interviewed by Megyn Kelly in 2015, after the cancellation of 19 Kids and Counting, and came forward as two of his victims. However, there’s no doubt that all the victims were retraumatized by their names being leaked and there is an ongoing court case around this. However, in Josh’s trial, a friend of the family by the name of Bobye Holt testified that Josh had admitted to her that he had molested the girls around 2002 and 2003. He was ‘courting’ the Holts’ daughter at the time, something which is common in the IBLP culture to which both families belong. Young people aren’t allowed to spend time together on their own, are encouraged to get to know each other within a group setting, must have a chaperone for dates, and must date “purposefully” looking towards marriage rather than it being a casual thing. After Josh’s admissions came to light to the Holts, his courtship with the Holts’ daughter was broken off.
While every human is responsible for their own actions, it is easy to see how the oppressive culture the Duggars live in could contribute to Josh seeking out sexual gratification elsewhere. This is a culture where low necklines and high hemlines are banned; the girls wore prairie dresses and even now will have ‘modesty panels’ sewn into clothes that are judged too revealing. The family would use the word “Nike!” to warn their sons to look at the ground if they were in public and saw a woman dressed ‘immodestly’. There’s footage of Joy-Anna one of Josh’s sisters, then around five years old, putting her hands over the TV to stop her brothers from seeing something that she, even at that tender age, knew was forbidden in her family.
Further, Josh’s actions have been swept under the carpet for years. The molestation was reported in 2006, after the statute of limitations had run out and, it turns out, to an officer who is now serving decades in prison for possession of child sexual abuse materials – definitely NOT the right person to have reported Josh’s actions to.
In their interview with Megyn Kelly in 2015, Jim Bob and Michelle downplayed the extent of the abuse. Even at the pretrial hearings a couple of weeks ago, Jim Bob said that he “couldn’t recall” the details of what his daughters had been subjected to and argued with the judge that the line of questioning shouldn’t be allowed. Josh’s parents definitely share a big part of the blame around the pattern of his actions over the last twenty years, and their religious culture has influenced their family decisions since Josh was a small child. This may be the first time he has ever faced serious consequences in his life and he will probably serve at least eight years, finally, for his continuing crimes against children.
Image credits: Wikimedia and Washington County Sheriff’s Office (edit: Philippa Willitts)
