It’s time to oust inbreeding and incest from its dark hole of shame and injustice. Working sex crimes in a rural community opened my eyes to the rampant problem. Unfortunately, analyses are hard to find (nearly impossible in the U.S.) and the subject is rarely spoken of, thus, the dark hole where these offenses against children reside.
In a Lancet Study in the UK, 2007 to 2011, 31% of anomalies in children of Pakistani origin could be attributed to consanguinity (inbreeding). The relatively small community, married within their religion. In another study from 1938 to 1967, the University of Queensland studied 450,000 genomes of European decent and found inbreeding similarities: decreased cognitive abilities and muscular function, reduced height and lung function, and a greater risk of contracting diseases in general.
I would like to add violent aggression which has been documented in certain regions with religious inbreeding though I could find no studies in the U.S. I talk about violence association below.
The University of Queensland Study (Australia) found approximately 70% of inbreeding were people living in desolate areas. We call these areas "rural" in the U.S. Rural residents marry others from the same community. The gene pool is relatively small and this has gone on for generations. I don't necessarily agree with this list of states with the most inbreeding because I have done comprehensive research about the subject in Utah and Arizona (I worked as a detective in AZ) and neither made the list.
During a minor theft case I worked early in my career, the woman I interviewed told me about her daughter who married her nephew. She said very matter of fact that she warned them the kids could be “woo hoo,” her words. She then went on and spoke about her other grandchildren like this was common.
I discovered it was.
The local newspaper printed a wedding announcement that had appeared in the paper thirty years before (I’ll use the name Jones though the actual name is more unique). Jones male married a female with the last name Jones. Two months after the anniversary celebration, their daughter’s marriage was announced and she was marrying another Jones. No one batted an eye.
The more child molestation cases I investigated, the more I correlated incest/inbreeding to specific families and their religion. I noticed physical characteristics such as large prominent foreheads, low cognitive abilities, and violence. I recommend watching Making a Murderer and The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia to understand the overall cognitive effects especially violent behavior. I dealt with similar families during my career.
In one case, a young boy was molested. I had three possible family suspects on the sex offender list who lived on the same property with the boy. The perpetrator was found to be grandpa who wasn’t in my peripheral at all and lived in another location within the town. Two of the three sex offending family members admitted grandpa was who first molested them. Five family members total admitted to being molested as young children by grandpa. On a side note, the family came together and begged the court to go light on my suspect. With help from his (now adult) victims, he was sentenced to only five years in prison. The youngest victim who started the investigation was six years old. Grandma was also the mother to one of her grandsons and yes that is confusing. I became accustomed to the quantity of incest/inbreeding while remaining shocked at the proclivity.
In a case I recused myself from due to friendship, I ran into a similar
horror. My friend’s brother-in-law (now an adult) was sentenced at age 14 for
molesting his cousin, her stepson. Her stepson (now an adult) perpetrated the
same offense at a similar age, and then the brother-in-law’s son committed the offense
with very young cousins at the exact age his father had (yes hard to follow). I
also found these cases had male/female victims throughout with all but one being male
perpetrators. The commonality in these cases was not protecting the
children from known perpetrators within families.
In several TikTok videos I’ve made on the subject, comments from victims were eye-opening. They reported molestation to a parent and were told to accept it as the way of life within the family.
I saw this repeatedly throughout my career.
My own family has roots in rural American inbreeding. Though I was an army brat, raised in the US and abroad, my parents divorced when I was twelve and we left army bases and settled in the city. I lived the city life until I was forty-three. My mother and father were both from rural America. I have a rare lung condition that was passed to my grandson. My mother, my sister, and my granddaughter have another hereditary health condition. We also have someone in my direct family line who was a diagnosed psychopath. I write about it in my yet unpublished memoir, Bullets for Breakfast. My family tree has few branches with violence, incest, and health anomalies throughout.
In my life and career, I have known three diagnosed psychopaths. My relative killed three people (we suspect more), the two others are from solved homicides where I was the lead detective. One killed two, the other three. Each of these prosecuted suspects were extremely violent and the violence began at an early age. Think torturing small animals, serial killer mentality.
I do not discount city incest and inbreeding but my research has shown it as a predominantly white, rural, and religious phenomenon. We have a horrific problem in rural America and I believe my hypothesis should be studied further. We cannot combat a crisis we won’t face.
So where do we go from here? Most rural populations will not freely give DNA samples. The outside discovery of incest and inbreeding is too taboo. LDS Mormons have one of the best genealogy archives in the country. It would be a place to start.
The research for my new Crime Thriller had me examining the Fundamentalist LDS Church: Warren Jeffs, LeBarón’s, and Lafferty families who perpetrate violence, incest, inbreeding, human trafficking, and murder. The FLDS also have the highest number of children born with Fumarase Deficiency (average IQ 25) in the U.S. directly caused from inbreeding. Title and cover reveal coming soon. Releases 1/13/2023 from Bookouture Hachette.