This week’s decision by a Lowndes County not to indict Davius Smith in the shooting death of his father, Robert Smith Jr., again focuses attention on the subject of domestic violence.
Robert Smith Jr. is the son of Columbus mayor Robert Smith. Although the deceased was never convicted of the offense, grand jury testimony by both Darius and his mother focused on alleged abuse in the home over a period of years.
It is apparent the grand jury believed that account, given its ultimate decision not to indict.
This case also presents an issue often lost in the dispute — the children who run the risk of being collateral damage when a parent abuses a spouse. While in many cases, children are also the target of the abuse, it is not always the case. In most respects, those children have less control of their circumstance than the adult, who is the subject of the abuse.
All too often, victims of such abuse are likely to stay in abusive relationships, and the cycle of abuse/reconciliation continues, often for years.
But the child exposed to that violence has no real choice. The child cannot leave the abusive relationship and is often unable to understand it.
According to the Childhood Domestic Violence Association (CDVA), children often reach the same misconceptions that are common to the victims themselves — guilt for being responsible for the abuse, bitterness, lack of trust, detachment from others.
The impact can follow a child long after they have left their childhood homes into adulthood. The CDVA says those who experience domestic violence in their homes as children are six times more likely to commit suicide, twice as likely to abuse drugs/alcohol and 74 percent more likely to commit a violent crime.
It has been said that drug/alcohol is a family disease. So is domestic abuse/violence. Both can have grave and life-long consequences.
Often, when a person is found guilty of domestic abuse, he or she is required to undergo to counseling. We believe counseling is even more important for the children who are exposed to the abuse as well.
Children in abusive homes should not be left to their own devices as they try to understand what is happening around them.
They need help.
They, too, are victims.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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