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Amy Duggar, the cousin of Josh Duggar and Joseph Duggar, has labelled their arrests a “pattern” that has been “allowed.”
In an Instagram video shared on Tuesday, April 7, Amy, 39, reflected on the child molestation charges filed against Joseph, 31, last month and the 2021 sex offender conviction that currently has Josh, 38, incarcerated.
“When one family member goes to prison for crimes against children and then another brother goes to jail allegedly for crimes against children, that is not a coincidence,” Amy told fans in the post. (Joseph was arrested in Arkansas on March 19 and extradited to Florida on March 31 before he was released on $600,000 bail.)
Amy continued, “That’s not random, that’s not bad luck, that’s not anything like that. That’s called a pattern. And patterns don’t come from nowhere. Patterns come from what’s been protected, what’s been ignored, and what’s been allowed to continue. At some point, you have to stop asking yourself, ‘How did this happen again?’ and realize that there is an environment that let this happen in the first place.”
Josh, the eldest of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s children, is serving a 151-month federal prison sentence following his April 2021 arrest on grounds of receiving and possessing child pornography. Josh maintained his innocence but was found guilty in December that year. He is scheduled to be released in December 2032.
Joseph, the seventh oldest child belonging to Jim Bob, 60 and Michelle, 59, was last month charged with lewd and lascivious behavior involving molestation of a victim less than 12 years old. He was also charged with lewd and lascivious behavior conducted by a person 18 years or older. The charges were presented after a 14-year-old came forward to police accusing Joseph of molesting her when she was 9-years-old during a 2020 vacation to Panama City Beach, Florida.
Additionally, Joseph and his wife, Kendra Duggar, were both charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor, second-degree, and four counts of second-degree false imprisonment. These secondary charges are unrelated to Joseph’s molestation allegations, and Kendra, 27, was released on bond the same day she was arrested.
Amy, who is the daughter of Jim Bob’s older sister Deanna Jordan, continued to address the family’s troubles in her Instagram post. “So two brothers now with mug shots, and victims that are young, allegedly, that is not a pattern, that is exposure to something deeper and something darker,” she stated. “You can’t protect your reputation and protect children at the same time in this kind of closed system.”
Amy continued, “I’m sure we all have questions. For example, how many were there that were not reported of the same kind of situation? How many more children were not protected when they should have been? How many more enablers [exist] and who knew all this information? I guarantee you someone knew in this family and didn’t say a thing. The scariest part for me is not the information we do know — it’s … all the information that we don’t right now because I guarantee you, there’s more to this story.”
A vocal critic of Joseph since news of the arrest broke, Amy told Us Weekly in a statement following his arrest that she was “sickened, heartbroken and deeply angry” about the allegations against him.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
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