Let me tell you what I am not hearing in the recent debate over OJ Simpson’s book with the proposed title If I Did It. I watched Denise Brown argue about the issue with the book’s publisher yesterday on the Today Show. I found Ms. Brown’s arguments had some strength, but it seemed clear that she in her heart knew publishing this book was wrong but could not clearly articulate the argument.

            Let me help. Despite OJ’s acquittal of murdering Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, let’s take the publisher at his word and believe the book will convince anyone including, OJ’s and Nicole’s children (as their aunt Denise noted in her argument), that OJ did indeed commit the murder.

            Why then write the book? Why is it important to write a book convincing everyone you committed this brutal crime while winking at the public and saying it is fiction? He has already been acquitted of the criminal charges and he has been burdened with the civil damages from the wrongful death suit, why ‘confess’ now?

            It was not about the money, he has done an excellent job over the last ten years of living a life most of us would envy while not paying a penny to the Goldman and Brown families.

            As with many other Domestic Violence abusers, it is about control. By asserting his guilt and the fact that no one can do anything about it, OJ is showing the world, his enemies, and his family that he was in complete control of Nicole’s life to include stabbing her again and again. In his mind, he won. He literally got away with murder and is now bragging about his ‘accomplishment’. As with many abusers, he may believe that they ‘deserved’ what happened and his actions were justified.

            It is also about continued abuse, abuse of his own children by publishing a book on how he, their father, murdered their mother. It is the continued abuse of the Goldman and Brown family – “Here, you are finally going to get your money with no cost to me, and at the price of hearing how I brutalized, controlled and slaughtered Nicolle and Ron.

            While the actions are unusual, the motives are typical of petty, controlling, abuser.