Children's crimes

This is an early reaction, so I might find other information that will change my mind about what's going on here. But this is the story as I understand it. I'm keeping the names out of it at first because the names are inflammatory and not to the point I'm interested in.

So a fourteen year old boy was fondling the bodies of (apparently younger) girls as they slept.  At least one of the girls complained to the police. I don't know what girls this particular child would have access to at this point in his life besides his many sisters, but though people have tweeted with the word "sister" I don't see it in the news report. The parents and communiity elders of the boy said they "disciplined" him and that he made efforts to reform himself within the worldview of their community. Yow. I have to be really coy to avoid the celebnrity aspect of this. Information about the events was prevented from going any farther than the community.

The police seem to have opened an investigation four years later? Were there new events? Because it's pretty clear that the one child complained at the beginning. In any case, the police apprear to have accepted the father's refusal to let them interview the boy (who would be seventeen by then).

There's a lot going on here but the thing that bothers me is that people seem to want to treat the actions of a fouteen year old as if they were the actions of an adult. And I don't know what these acvtions even are. Because "fondling a girl's genitals while she slept" can mean anything from a curious touch to a forcible grab. And, no, I don't want to downplay the experiences of girls who are handled against their will, even by other children. But I don't want children treated as adults. and I don't want us to count the behaviors of children the same way as the crimes of adults.

Nor do I want to see punishment and revenge be the standard responses to children's crimes (adults' either, but that's a conversation for another time). I want children to be protected and helped, not punished and labeled. I don't beleive for a minute that Jim Bob Duggar's (yes, this is the case I'm talking about) "discipline" was anything but punishment and exhortation to keep it under the rug. I don't believe anybody took the time to teach Josh Duggar anything about empathy or respect for other people, or boundaries, or any of the things he needed to learn. The child of 2002 is a man closing in on thirty years now, and he's been handed a leadership position in a prominent organization that styles itself as a voice for families. (he's resigned but I do not think he's given up his position as a darling of the "quiverfull" monsters).

Speaking only about the boy in 2002, and not the man in 2015: that boy was a victim of an abusive upbringing. Just look at any little proud description from any of the Duggar family, of the routines, the restrictions, the isolation and privation. Listen to them talk about their methods of "discipline."  Go ahead, read about "blanket training."  And go on and read the things they say about the relationship betwreen women and girls on one hand and boys and men on the other hand. How can anyone expect monsters like this to raise twenty children without something going very wrong?

Yes, use this as a reason to critique TLC and their odious programming. Call for the cancellation of this horrible show. But don't be telling me that that fourteen year old boy should have been treated like an adult rapist.

edit: following personhead redbird's tip, I'm now reading this. I am not done reading it but it looks informative so far.