Trio of child-sex documentaries puts a spotlight on parents

NEW YORK — The mothers of the two accusers in HBO’s “Leaving Neverland” said they were lulled by Michael Jackson’s forlorn demeanor and fairytale world when they allowed him to take their boys into his bed. An aunt who introduced her underage niece to R. Kelly and suspects abuse said in the six-part “Surviving R. Kelly” docuseries on Lifetime that she hoped he would propel the teen’s music career. The parents of a 12-year-old girl kidnapped twice and abused over several years by a trusted neighbor in Idaho called themselves “naive” in the Netflix documentary on the bizarre 1970s ordeal, “Abducted in Plain Sight.” The trio of high-profile cases, the latest in a long line of media fare focused on child abuse, have generated intense scrutiny of the people who should matter most to kids: their parents. “The basic facts are that somebody who’s intent on sexually abusing a child does actually groom both a child and a caregiver,” said Esther Deblinger-Sosland, who has written two books on the subject and is a psychology professor and co-director of the Child Abuse Research Education Service Institute at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. Parents may be coping with stresses and adversities that distract them, Deblinger-Sosland explained, but at the same time, “most people don’t assume anyone who talks articulately, who appears to be friendly and caring, is a sex offender.” Child sex offenders, she said, are often viewed by society as the “most heinous criminals,” she said.