On O.J. Simpson:

“At that point in time, we were still struggling to get people to understand what domestic violence was,” said Rita Smith, who has been the Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence since just before the 1994 murders. “And now that term, domestic violence, is something that most people understand. It’s not something that was universally known prior to those murders.”

— How the OJ Simpson Case Helped Fight Domestic Violence. TIME

On Gabby Petito:

“You cannot determine who a primary aggressor is based on one incident,” Smith says. “It’s not what they see right in front of them. They’ve got to get some kind of a historical perspective of this interaction to know who really is in danger here.” As a result of mandatory arrest laws, she says, arrests of domestic violence survivors went up, as did dual arrests. When police cannot determine who the primary aggressor is, they may simply arrest both people. “That was not a good outcome and was not our intention as advocates,” she says.

— This Is Why Cops Shouldn’t Handle All Domestic Violence Calls. The Cut

On the death of of 5-year-old Phoebe Jonchuck:

“Children who witness domestic violence are more likely to repeat that pattern and become either an abuser or a victim,” Smith said.

— Domestic Violence Could Have Raised ‘Red Flag’ In Death. Space Coast Daily

On the NFL and domestic violence:

(DeShaun Wilson has)… “done absolutely no self-reflection that I can tell. You don’t have that many violations reported from somebody who’s not doing anything wrong. He’s doing something wrong in those sessions. He’s doing something inappropriate in those sessions. So he needs to figure out what that is and how he can stop it so that nobody gets hurt in that process.”

— DeShaun Wilson is playing us and is still a danger until he admits wrongdoing. Connect With Cleveland

Goodell moved quickly to add a domestic violence clause to the league’s code of conduct. In August, he summoned six domestic violence experts to his Manhattan office to air their grievances, express their concerns and help craft the new policy. “We were pretty honest with him,” says Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “We said that any suspensions had to be significant or they wouldn’t have an impact. And it was imperative for him to be consistent in all cases. If not, this all falls apart.”

— If there were a Greg Hardy video, would Greg Hardy be playing Sunday? si.com