Joseph Duggar, one of Jim-Bob and Michelle Duggar’s 19 children, was arrested in March for crimes he committed against a minor child in 2020. Joseph was taken into custody in Arkansas, and extradited to Florida, which is where he allegedly abused a child. Alongside Joseph’s arrest, his wife was arrested in Arkansas as well for reasons unrelated to her husband’s Florida crimes. Joseph is now the second Duggar offspring facing serious accusations of crimes against women and children. Joseph’s older brother Josh is currently serving a federal sentence too. All in all, the Duggar family is completely f–ked up and it was always a damn religious cult. People Magazine put this catastrophe on their cover this week, and they have some exclusive information:
After Kendra and Joseph’s 2017 wedding, they settled close to his family: The couple and their four young children settled into a tidy ranch in a new subdivision in Tontitown, Ark., close to the 97-acre compound where Joseph, 31, grew up as the third-oldest son of his devoutly religious reality TV family. “He seemed like a nice guy,” one neighbor tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story of Joseph, who worked in real estate. “His kids are always up and down the sidewalks … playing like normal.”
Kendra’s arrest: A source close to the family maintains to PEOPLE that the welfare allegations are unrelated to Joseph’s molestation case: “The arrest was a result of a home inspection and the door locks being on the exterior of the doors.” If true, it would be a distressing echo of an earlier scandal: Joseph’s parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, used locks to keep their daughters separate from Joseph’s brother Josh after learning Josh had molested several of them as a teen.
What don’t we know about this sick family? “I thought it was neat to have that many kids. I enjoyed watching all the shows,” says local David Pfahler. But now, he says, “I’m thinking: What else don’t we know about the Duggars?”
Duggar cousin Amy Duggar King questions the family’s fundamentalist upbringing. “I’m sickened but not surprised,” says King, 39, an outspoken critic who remains in touch with Jill Duggar Dillard, Joseph and Josh’s sister. “This reflects a deeper systemic issue. When they grow up around environments where the power is unchecked, and men are elevated and not held accountable, and silence is encouraged and rewarded, it creates the perfect conditions for abuse to happen and to continue. It’s crazy to think this is happening again.”
Social workers & professors chime in: Shari Botwin, a social worker uninvolved in the case and author of Stolen Childhoods, can’t help but think, “What are the boundaries in that family?” Baylor University history professor Beth Allison Barr sees another problem: “You have young men growing up in this religious culture that teaches them women’s bodies belong to them.”
How the Duggars handle these situations: A family source put it another way, bluntly describing their dynamics to PEOPLE in 2021: “Jim Bob always wants to sweep things under the rug.”
While this is correct – “You have young men growing up in this religious culture that teaches them women’s bodies belong to them” – it’s more complicated than that and much, much worse. Yes, there’s the fundamentalist Christianity of it all, there’s the completely screwed-up messaging around temptation, sexuality and shame, but there’s so much more. In my opinion, people need to stop giving Jim-Bob and Michelle a pass and really start examining their roles in how their sons became this way.
Also: I’m surprised that People Magazine drew a parallel with Kendra’s arrest and the Duggar family’s history of locking up their girl children so that the boys wouldn’t molest them. Why did Kendra keep locks on her children’s doors? My god.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Kendra & Joseph’s Instagram, cover courtesy of People Magazine.
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- Tontitown, AR Joseph Duggar of 19 Kids and Counting fame poses for his mugshot after being arrested on for alleged child sex abuse. The married 31-year-old father was arrested in Florida and has been transported back to Arkansas, his home state. Pictured: Joseph Duggar BACKGRID USA 18 MARCH 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: Washington County Sheriff’s Office / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Tontitown, AR Kendra Duggar poses for a mugshot after being arrested for allegedly endangering the welfare of a minor and false imprisonment. Kendra was booked 5pm Friday (March 20) after being arrested in Tontitown AR. Pictured: Kendra Duggar BACKGRID USA 20 MARCH 2026 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
It’s baffling to me that there are people that have willingly married into this craziness. As a mom I cannot fathom thinking, “oh, ok, let me just put a lock on that door. That’ll take care of that.” And Michelle – was Josh the only one they were being locked away from? Or is it anything in the house with a d*ck?
Glad for the Duggar girls who got away.
Yes, but how many children are sill in Jim Bob’s home? Will they get away
Jim Bob is and has always been creepy AF. And Michelle probably holds them down.
TV fame and money is one reason they married in. Anna’s parents pushed her in Josh’s direction while HIS parents knew of their son’s dirty deeds.
Did Michelle and Bob ever face charges for putting outer locks on their daughters’ doors or nah? I take it that was something that was discovered years later.
I think we all know what the locks Kendra put on her kids’ doors mean given this family’s history.
All of the parents in that family who still have minor children in the house need to be looked at.
This lady reminds me of Dotty Sandusky. Sure sure sure Jerry was just taking the boys down to the basement to “tuck them into bed”. These enabler wives are the grossest. After Joseph’s molestation in 2020 is when Kendra stopped posting on socials about their family – she knew. Personally, I’m glad she was busted too.
Dotty S. kept quiet all of those years so she could keep her lifestyle and go on cruises.
I’ve always 🤮 at organized religion and never regretted doing so…it’s gross and distorted BS that always tramples women. The bible is bunch of stories written by men…
And this is the crap that got Trump elected. Twice.
Yet their arrogant boob of a father thought he could run for public office. What a disgusting sham that family is.
Jim Bob is a former Republican (naturally) member of the Arkansas (naturally) house of representatives from 1999 – 2003. Their terms are two years, so that mean that he was elected and then re-elected.
Purity culture ultimately promotes the patriarchy and pe#ophilia. If you can, please read the books written by Daniella Mestyanek Young. She grew up in the Children of God cult and has written an autobiography about her life and a book about cult behavior. Maga/Q/Maha deliberately tapped into fundamentalist Christian cult dynamics and behavior. To get out of this current political hellscape, we have to start educating people and combating cult speak and behavior. Women like Kendra have been programmed their entire lives to blame women/girls and support the men at all costs. We have to change this thinking to break cycles of generational trauma and to have a future without white nationalists running amok.
Thank you for bringing up MAGA, who also promote the idea that women’s bodies belong to men. Their orange lord and savior has always expressed this view , walking into teen model changing rooms, holding his young daughter very inappropriately, and that’s just on the surface before getting into sex trafficking and rape.
I’m glad People put this story on the cover but let’s not pretend the issue is limited to extremist cults.
You said just about everything I wanted to, including citing the same source 👍🏻. Tia Levings also is a cult survivor who’s written The Well Trained Wife about escaping extreme Christian nationalist patriarchy. She initially went to the church that Tim Tebow grew up at, I believe it’s where they were taught some of the extreme behaviors.
Jim Bob’s dad has documented SA “problems” with children, and his mom “managed” it by having strict rules for the possible targets. 2 kids out of 19 showing the exact same behavior says it’s a system that bred perpetrators and their religion is literally set up to groom victims. Nothing more, nothing less.
Oh, I think it’s gonna be more than just two of them. Unfortunately.
We need to start and send our own “missions” into these churches/parts of the country that are infested with this to reprogram these girls and women. Show them how good life can be when you can make your own choices and you have power over your own life/body.
How about you kick the offending dick out of the house instead of locking the girls away like it is their fault that their brother/dad can’t keep their hands off of them? Locking them in a room. What if there is a fire? They don’t care if they sacrifice a few girls for the boy that is loud and clear. Their world is set up for men.
I’m glad they arrested her. There were no consequences for Michelle or Jim-Bob for the exterior locks on their girls’ door. (Just the one room for all those girls.)
But putting locks on the outside doors of her children’s rooms wouldn’t prevent her sicko husband from opening those locks–unless only she had the key. Two questions: What man needs his children to be locked up in order for him not to molest them? And what woman would put up with that shit?