When the world learned that Josh Duggar had been arrested on child pornography charges, many of the family's biggest fans and harshest critics had the same question on their mind:

How long has his family been expecting this, and what did they do to try and help him hide his criminal behavior?

The suspicion didn't come out of nowhere, of course.

The Duggars have been down this road with Josh before, and in the past, they turned out to be willing co-conspirators.

When it was back in 2015 revealed that Josh had molested five young girls -- four of whom were his sisters, the fifth a family babysitter -- the outrage was compounded by the fact that Josh's parents had helped him avoid prosecution for his crimes.

On that occasion, they knew about Josh's criminal actions for years before the public found out.

So what was their lead time on the 33-year-old's child porn scandal?

Well, we know that the Duggars were expecting the arrest at least since November of 2019.

That's when a car dealership owned by Josh was raided by agents from the Department of Homeland Security.

Neither the agency nor the Duggars ever offered any explanation for the raid, and it was widely assumed that the matter had been settled.

But we now know that the raid was the result of an investigation that led to the discovery of dozens of explicit photos and videos on Josh's computer.

It seems unlikely that Josh could have or would have hidden the reason for the raid from his wife and parents.

And while we may never know exactly how they responded to the news, we know that the raid resulted in some dramatic changes in the way the Duggars live their lives.

Maybe they were hoping the whole thing would blow over, or maybe they were battening down the hatches for the big storm they knew was approaching.

Either way, the entire family kept a much lower profile in the year following Josh's arrest.

Fans began to take notice when major developments would occur in the lives of the Duggars, and instead of announcing them to the public as they used to, Jim Bob and Michelle would attempt to keep them under wraps.

When Jed Duggar and Katey Nakatsu got married, for example, the entire family helped keep the relationship a secret until after the wedding day.

Now, it's widely believed that Jana Duggar has entered a courtship with Stephen Wissmann, but once again, the Duggars have broken with tradition by not making an announcement.

In fact, it seems they're going to great lengths to keep the relationship a secret.

The situation has led many fans to the conclusion that Jim Bob and Michelle are more involved with Josh's crimes than they appear to be.

They've already demonstrated that they'll do whatever they have to in order to protect Josh from criminal prosecution.

And the attempt to distance themselves from the spotlight might be a result of their decision to keep themselves safe, as well as Josh.

Even if they're not guilty of any criminal activity, the elder Duggars know how the public will react if it turns out they once again assisted Josh in burying his atrocities. 

And they know the response will not be pleasant.

Already, Jim Bob helped secure Josh's bail by finding him a home to be released to (Josh couldn't return home, as he's not permitted to live with children).

So it doesn't seem all that far-fetched that they've once again been going to great lengths to help their eldest son avoid prosecution.

Whatever the case, more information is sure to come to light during Josh's trial, which is set to begin on July 6.

And much of it will probably be quite damaging to the reputations of Jim Bob and Michelle.