Maybe because they just want to avoid the prying eyes of the public. People could be so judgmental, you know. I think both teens should have been sent to therapy.

That they aren't good parents...

Sounds like this sort of thing is in the family. Perhaps there's more that they don't want to expose. Poor kid. :( This is what happens in environments that don't respect women, and is entirely why we need feminism still in this world.

I think that the whole family has serious issues. It obviously should have been dealt with differently but I can understand why the parents would want to cover something like that up, that doesn't mean I agree with it. They must feel deeply ashamed (this is just me speculating) that anything like that could happen in their family. Both the son and daughter need serious help and it should have been given to them. The police should have been informed from the outset.

I can't imagine being the parents that learned this of their children. Still, without knowing the details, it's difficult to assess exactly what was happening, but I think that if I were faced with a similar situation as a parent, I would try to deal with it myself rather than hand it over to the police. As a parent, it's in your nature to want to protect your children, and I think that professional help was definitely the best thing for the girl involved, which is what the courts would've wanted for her anyway. I'm not excusing it or condoning it, but it's very easy to stand on the outside of the situation and judge the people involved without feelings about everyone involved being family. My sister punched me when she was nineteen and I was seventeen, but I didn't call the cops and neither did my parents. We dealt with it as a family. As long as the girl gets the counselling she needs and the boy gets the obvious professional help he needs, it's hard to cast stones. At the same time, if he'll rape his own sister, there's no telling what he'd do to a girl he doesn't know as well, and it's probably best that hye is a registered sex offendor and treated accordingly.

They didn't send the son to therapy?! (or the psych ward)

Definitely both kids should go to therapy. Maybe the 'cover-up' is the girl's wish: she probably has figured out that if the legal system were to get involved, guaranteed the brother goes onto the sex offender list and his name, address, picture all go onto the internet, and then she has to deal with her friends (who no doubt know her brother) knowing about it. Maybe she's had enough grief without the system adding more. The brother deserves to be punished, but not her... FWIW

The son belongs in jail. The parents are guilty of accessory after the fact. The daughter needs a much better guardian.

I would think that the parents didn't want government interference in their lives. It makes sense for both to have gone to therapy instead of just the girl. It's easy to say that you would not report your own son, but what if it happens to you? It's easy to say you'd be out of there, but have you ever been in the situation? Anyway. I think people who judge people like this are too quick to judge, but I also think the son should be reported.

Personally I think the parents should talk to them and gave them seperate rooms If it continue then oldest child would have to leave.