For years now, I’ve had advocates who work with survivors of domestic violence tell me that two events in 1994 changed entirely the landscape for victims’ services in their field: the passage of the Violence Against Women Act and the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.
In fact, many advocates cite her death in June of that year as instrumental in Congress’s prioritizing the passage of the Violence Against Women Act that September, which in turn authorized the creation of the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Simpson trial.
It was the first time many Americans were even made aware of the domestic violence services offered in their own backyards.
Yet it’s worth taking a moment to remember the ways his case, even in light of the outcome, had profound and lasting consequences for domestic violence victims, for their advocates and for court systems.
Persons:
I’ve, Nicole Brown Simpson, hotlines, Simpson, Brown, Ron Goldman’s —