First Person, Social Worker
The Simpson case: What is it teaching social workers about violence against children?
By Kathleen McGlade, DSW
(November/December 1995)

No one is arguing that the O.J. Simpson case presents an opportunity to discuss legal reform. Too few seem to recognize that it also gives social workers the opportunity to discuss ethical choices and social reform. In fact, the Simpson case is a complex one that offers many lessons for social work as well as the law.

The Simpson case provides a vehicle for social workers who are administrators, case workers, private clinicians, domestic violence advocates, professors, writers, and community organizers to review their practice as it relates to violence against children. It also gives social workers the opportunity to help reform social policy that relates to family and community violence toward children.

The absence of a stronger social work voice throughout this very public case once again raises the question of why social workers, who have an expertise in family, community and social violence, are not called upon to share their wisdom.

A "social work" review of the Simpson case may help professionals, families, communities and policy makers assess the depth and impact of the many forms of violence against children that this case uncovered. The following case review tool which I developed for use in a workshop on children and violence from a community perspective, may help individuals and group social workers, their students and their clients, begin to more formally and collectively explore the social work implications of the case.

In addition, these questions may help enrich discussions among professionals, client groups and/or students: 1) What can social workers do to work with the media in order to shed light on the fact that violence toward children takes clear and subtle forms? 2) How can social workers help society prioritize its concerns about the many forms that violence takes against children? 3) From an ethical point of view, have children in general suffered from the range of choices that were made in the Simpson case? 4) Did children benefit from the range of choices that were made in the Simpson case ? 5) Did the "advocates" in the Simpson case make choices in the children's best interest? Hopefully, the discussion will encourage insight and action.

Case Review Tool

Using the O.J. Simpson case as an example of violence against children, consider the following conditions of violence to which Sydney and Justin Simpson have been exposed. As "artificial and arbitrary" as it may seem, try to rate the seriousness of the following conditions of violence on the children.

0=Not Serious 1=Serious 2=Very Serious

_____1. The children were exposed to some past physical fighting between their parents.

_____2. The children were exposed to verbal fighting between their parents.

_____3. The children learned their mother was murdered.

_____4. After their mother's death the children were exposed to tension between their mother's family and their father.

_____5. For the rest of their lives, the children will face a range of public opinion and media curiosity about the death of their mother.

_____6. As children growing up in L.A., they may have little trust in the ability of the police to keep them safe from violence.

_____7. The reputation of the police in LA is so poor that as they become adults, the children may not report crimes against them for fear that the incompetence of the police or district attorney may only worsen their situation.

_____8. The children may live with a father who has had a well-publicized history of being a batterer.

_____9. The family's socio-economic situation might be a factor that contributed to the violence to which the children were exposed.

_____10. Public concern about police deceit, corruption, and brutality may have overshadowed the public's concern about other forms of violence against children.

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