Crime, Reality TV
By Tamara Tabo
tabo.atl@gmail.com
May 29, 2015 at 10:32 PM

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Permitting Abuse

Jim Bob and Michelle’s response to Josh’s actions was not only a moral failure. It also may have been a crime in itself. ... Along with civil penalties for child maltreatment, “permitting abuse of a minor” counts as a criminal offense under Arkansas law. The offense is punishable as a felony when a parent “recklessly fails to take action to prevent” the sexual abuse of a minor. The statute provides a defense if the parent “takes immediate steps to end the abuse of the minor, including prompt notification of a medical or law enforcement authority, upon first knowing or having good reason to know that abuse has occurred.”

According to the police report, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar learned that their daughters were being sexually abused in March 2002. Jim Bob also told police that in July 2002 Josh admitted to again fondling one of the girls while she slept. Nine months later, in March 2003, the report indicates that yet another incident occurred. There is no record of the Duggars notifying a doctor or, at that time, notifying law enforcement.

Instead, the family sent Josh to stay with a family friend from March 2003 to July 2003. When Josh returned home, his father took him to see Arkansas State Trooper Jim Hutchens, a personal acquaintance of the Duggars, who gave Josh no more than a “very stern talk.”

We now know that Hutchens himself would be later convicted of child pornography offenses. One wonders how stern his counsel not to touch the genitals of little girls could possibly have been. ... Even if the trip to see Hutchens counts as notification of law enforcement, July 2003 is a long time after the Duggars first learned of the abuse, certainly not the “prompt” response required by law.