
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 27, 1994                    TAG: 9406250011 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A6    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Medium 
DATELINE: 940627                                 LENGTH:

SPOUSE ABUSE ONLY PART OF PICTURE\

{LEAD} The press and fashionable circles always seek to find some kind of socially redeeming message in any well-publicized personal tragedy such as the O.J. Simpson case. So now we are hearing network news anchors, op-ed columnists and even the L.A. district attorney say that the ``larger'' message is not whether O.J. Simpson committed a brutal double murder, but whether society takes domestic violence ``seriously.''

That Simpson was let off with a slap on the wrist in 1989 for assaulting his wife on New Year's Eve certainly is outrageous, as is the fact that police had to be called to his home nine times. But is it any more outrageous than Maurice O'Neal Boyd's release on parole after a previous manslaughter conviction and parole violation? He is charged with the capital murder of Newport News police officer Larry Bland last month.

{REST} It seems a lot harder to find the crimes that are taken seriously than those that are not. Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman were brutally murdered, but the city of Detroit, for instance, experiences an average of two murders a day every day of the week. Even if a suspect is arrested, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced, the probablity is high the perpetrator will not serve anywhere near his full sentence.

Domestic violence also presents special problems for police and prosecutors. Since the abuse takes place in private, there are usually no witnesses unless the spouse - who is usually, but not always, the wife - chooses to testify. Testifying has its own risks. As may have happened in the Simpson case, the enraged husband could return angrier than ever.

By all means, take spouse abuse seriously, but the key issue is not that everything else is being taken ``seriously'' while domestic abuse is swept under the carpet. Most crime is committed by a relatively small number of offenders who are repeatedly allowed back on the streets to commit mayhem. That is the problem Gov. George Allen is grappling with in seeking to end parole. Spouses have a right to expect safety, but then, so does everybody else.

by CNB