Child Sex Abuse
The main theme of the film is child sex abuse, because the film focuses on the case against the Friedmans as well as the men themselves. We see a cycle of abuse that develops; Arnold Friedman began to molest children early in his life, whilst he was still a child himself, and continued throughout his life until his arrest. He admitted to molesting his own sons, which his son Jesse corroborated. Jesse uses this molestation as a mitigating circumstance for his own crimes against children, suggesting that in his view at least there is a cycle of abuse that occurs when a child is abused and goes on to repeat the abuse themselves in adulthood.
However, there is equally strong evidence for there being no cycle of abuse in this way; neither of Arnold's other two sons, whom he abused, went on to commit any offenses
The film shows the opportunistic life led by child molesters and abusers; Arnold Friedman used his profession as a tool for abusing children, as he was a computer science teacher who tutored privately from his own home. Trapped with an authority figure in the basement of his home, his students had no way of escaping his clutches. As a respected teacher, it would be unlikely that the children he abused would feel that they were likely to be believed.
Child Pornography
There is a link made in the movie between the collecting and enjoyment of child pornography and the molestation of children. In particular, the case against Arnold showed a link between his voyeurism and his molestation; the investigation of the Friedmans was triggered by the U.S. postal service when they intercepted a child pornography magazine on the way to Friedman's address. Once the investigation was underway the police discovered a large collection of similar magazines in the basement of the Friedman house, leading them to believe that he used the magazines during his molestation of his students.
False Confessions
The film's director makes it plain in the film that he believes Jesse Friedman made a false confession and that he only admitted to molesting children so that he would receive a lighter sentence for his crimes.
One of the lesser themes of the documentary is that of false confessions and the way in which a suspect like Jesse might be pressured to confess to crimes they had not committed, faced with seemingly irrefutable evidence and wanting to minimize their sentence as much as possible. This is one of the more controversial parts of the film, because there is an implication that the conviction of Jesse was no good, despite evidence to the contrary.
Family Secrets
The director never set out to make a film about a father-son duo of child molesters. He was actually making a short film about some of New York's most popular children's party entertainers and came across one of the most in-demand clowns, Silly Billy. Billy had an interesting family history; his father and brother were two of the more notorious pedophiles arrested and imprisoned in the 1980s, something that David actually kept well hidden, having changed his last name and put the 1980s far behind him. Although he maintained that he changed his name for professional reasons, one cannot blame him for wanting to dissociate himself from the crimes that his family committed. The theme of family secrets shows that everyone has events or people in their past that are kept hidden, and that would not necessarily be associated with them by people on the outside.
