As you’ve likely heard by now, 31-year-old father of three Joseph Duggar has been arrested on charges of child molestation.
The former reality star is reportedly still behind bars after being taken into police custody on Wednesday afternoon.
According to a police report, he stands accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl during a family vacation in Panama City Beach, Florida in 2020.
This, of course, is not the first time that the Duggar family has been rocked by a scandal involving child sexual abuse.
Back in 2015, an unsealed police report revealed that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s eldest child, Josh Duggar, had molested five young girls, four of whom were his sisters.
Josh didn’t face any legal consequences, but his family’s reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, was canceled by TLC.
In the long run, the Duggars didn’t face any professional ramifications either, as the network brought the family back for a reboot titled Counting On (this time without Josh).
A few years later, the family found itself at the center of an even more damaging scandal.
In 2021, Josh was convicted on charges of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse materials.
He has been in prison ever since, and he’s expected to remain behind bars until December of 2021.
Many fans of the family have expressed shock that such a family of devout evangelical Christians could produce such monstrous behavior.
But as many have pointed out, Josh and Joseph’s (although we should note that the latter has not yet been convicted of any crimes) depraved behavior might have occurred because of their upbringing, not in spite of it.
As anyone who has watched the Duggars’ reality shows will know, the family lives in a highly secretive, insular world.
Josh was able to claim so many victims — and rise to fame after his first brush with the law — largely because his family and neighbors helped him keep his secret and turned a blind eye to his many red flags.
And then there were the bizarre teachings and extreme punishments that might have warped Josh and Joseph’s psyches — and their views on sex — at young ages.
The infamous “Duggar dress code,” for example, requires women and girls to dress “modestly” at all times.
This usually means that they’re forced to wear floor-length skirts and long sleeves even while playing sports or engaging in other outdoor activities — all so that they won’t run the risk of inducing impure thoughts in the menfolk.
Obviously, premarital sex was forbidden in the Duggars’ community, but the family took things even further than that, forbidding unmarried men and women even to kiss, hold hands, or be alone together.
The Duggar courtship rules were notoriously harsh, yet another effort from the elders in the community to control the sex lives of young men and women.
It would be simplistic and misguided to blame Josh and Joseph’s misconduct on their parents’ beliefs.
But it’s worth noting that — as is so often the case — strict rules intended to bring about certain behaviors had the opposite effect instead.