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These people should be thrown into an alligator nest. But since we don't do things that way in this country, I guess they can look forward to the rest of their lives in prison.
If the parents actually “Loved” their children they wouldn’t have abused them. This is a scar these children will have with them all of their lives. Some people shouldn’t have children.
A rational society in a severely crowded world, would establish a permit process for having a child. Many of these pathologically unsuited people would be weeded out, but of course, not all of them. Some psychopaths are able to pass as normal, when they know they are under scrutiny. The people who were supposed to be my parents, were able to fool almost everyone and carry out their disordered agendas at their pleasure.
Making things worse, when parents like this are involved, there are some twisted professionals in psychology, education and related fields, who know how to identify and exploit them and extend the abuse their children suffer. In many of the cases of aggravated and long-term child abuse, there are professionals lurking in the background, getting their own satisfactions, by facilitating what the parents are doing.
It's difficult to believe that what these parents did to their children for all those years, was unknown to those in the system, who should have put a stop to it, long before.
A rational society in a severely crowded world, would establish a permit process for having a child. Many of these pathologically unsuited people would be weeded out, but of course, not all of them. Some psychopaths are able to pass as normal, when they know they are under scrutiny. The people who were supposed to be my parents, were able to fool almost everyone and carry out their disordered agendas at their pleasure.
Making things worse, when parents like this are involved, there are some twisted professionals in psychology, education and related fields, who know how to identify and exploit them and extend the abuse their children suffer. In many of the cases of aggravated and long-term child abuse, there are professionals lurking in the background, getting their own satisfactions, by facilitating what the parents are doing.
It's difficult to believe that what these parents did to their children for all those years, was unknown to those in the system, who should have put a stop to it, long before.
I agree with you. Heck, just requiring some parenting classes in order to graduate from high school, and giving all students resources that are available to help them later when they actually have kids would be a good start. At least the people who want to be good parents but don't know how because they didn't have any good examples would be helped by that. The vicious psychos wouldn't be, but at least it would be a start.
This was interesting. The children asked to have the special dog with them during their court appearance. They obviously had some anxiety about their need to appear in court.
I cannot doubt that the children still have feelings about their parents. Their feelings are what they are. Their lives before their rescue probably involved intense emotions of various kinds, including love. How they process their experience is individual. But I think that utter hatred would be more damaging than some loving feelings. Whatever they feel, they feel.
We don’t have to categorize, or even understand. They have the right to feel their feelings.
A little dog was found when the horrors of the Turpin "home" were discovered and the children freed. The dog, like the youngest child, had been well-cared for physically. I hope the older Turpin children have that dog with them now - if they want it. It seems to have been a pet of their mother, rather than a family pet.
She means that some of the children--sorry, adults--appear well-educated and well-spoken. As to well-spoken, these people may have been chained and beaten but they weren't deprived of speech. You don't need to be educated or even have basic literacy skills in order to speak English, and they had each other to talk to. The 17-year-old who called 911 spoke fluently enough, but said she hadn't even finished the first grade and didn't know the meaning of the word "medication."
If some of the adult "children" have since been attending college, I would assume they were placed first in remedial English and math classes, perhaps some basic science and history, etc., to fill in the gaps in their "education." One of the boys, at least, was allowed to attend some college classes even before the abuse was discovered. Since they had nothing else to do while confined to the house, perhaps he shared what he had learned with the others.
I expect the older children, who had received some semblance of basic education skills, taught the younger ones. The children we've heard from seem to be quite bright, although it was reported that the deprivation of nutrients - semi-starvation - was severe enough to impair the mental development of some of them (I am not sure that could be adequately tested initially, when all the children had been so terribly deprived of awareness of and normal experiences in the world around them, though perhaps small head circumferences led to this conclusion).
It also was reported early on that the parents required the kids to keep journals, so they could read and write...though I cannot imagine what the content would have been, since the parents would have had access to them, and the children's lives were so pitifully - and deliberately - meager.
Hmm. When I think of fairness of a sentence, there are some questions:
1. Did the parents believe they were harming their children?
2. Did the parents intend to harm their children?
3. What harm was done?
4. Are they likely to reoffend if released into the general public right now?
5. What sentences have others received for the same behaviors?
6. Is some of this sentence a reaction to how very weird the whole family, created by these parents, appears? Is there some gawk factor?
I struggle with life in prison, with possibility of parole after 25 years. That seems like too much. Also, considering the swiftness of the verdict, I'm guessing the sentence was decided before the children's statements were read. In that case, why put the kids through that whole exercise, if not to listen and consider it? The children were asking for less than 25, and the sentence was at the very least 25, and perhaps never get out.
(And for those who work in the field, for them to say this is the "worst case of child abuse they've ever seen", does that mean they've never worked on a case where a child died from the willful abuse of children by an adult?)
So, parenting can be a bit of a crapshoot. We all do the best we can and on any given day, all parents can and do make mistakes. There are some mistakes that might be abusive but you could possibly write it off as "the parents did not believe they were harming their children." For example, maybe a parent who spanks accidentally leaves a bruise. Unacceptable and crosses the line into child abuse, but if it were a one-time thing, I would not want to see that parent spend years in prison. Sending kids to bed without dinner for misbehaving. I think it's cruel, but I could see how a parent might think it's acceptable. Would not want to see the parent go to jail. Having the kid stand on the street corner with a sign that says, "I don't do my homework and I lie about it." Awful parenting, but again, probably no lasting harm and the parent is probably not intending to harm their child.
Chaining 12 kids to beds for months at a time, withholding food, not allowing them access to a bathroom so that they are urinating and defecating on themselves, and beating them for transgressions like "playing with the water" while washing their hands? Obviously that is done to harm the child, the parents knew they were harming them, and yes, lifelong harm was done.
Throw the book at them. I think 25 years is too lenient and I hope they die in prison.
The USA, the only developed country without universal health care. However, if you are scum like this, you get health care, 3 hots and a cot for life.
Great place, huh?
What drove me crazy about the statements was when the father said, "I'm sorry if I've done anything to cause them harm."
IF????
Doesn't sound like much of an apology to me.
He is not admitting his guilt, even to himself.
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