O.J. and Nicole The case of O.J. Simpson, who was found guilty in civil court for the wrongful deaths of Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman, was the ex-husband of Nicole and had been charged in the past, during their marriage with spousal abuse. It may be said that in this case study, the theory of victim precipitation (passive) could be applied, as Nicole's friendship with Ronald following so soon upon her separation and divorce from O.J. could be said to be the reason that O.J. attacked and killed both -- or to use the parlance of the civil court case, the reason that O.J. was "responsible" for the deaths of Nicole and Ronald.

O.J. Simpson was a professional football player in the NFL. He was also a popular entertainer and had appeared in films like The Naked Gun and each of their sequels, also starring Leslie Nielson. He had a comedic charm about him and appeared well on camera. He was tall, handsome and African-American. He retired from football in the 1970s. He was married twice and had children with each of his spouses. At the time of the murders, O.J. had just appeared in the third Naked Gun film. He was still very much a celebrity though not as popular or in the public eye as he was after the NBA Finals were interrupted to broadcast the live police chase that ensued when O.J. was charged with the murders of Nicole and Ronald. The chase was broadcast around the world and made for sensational television. For months it became the trial to watch, as millions of viewers were glued to their television sets hearing both sides of the case straight from the prosecution and the defense, as the Judge allowed cameras into the courtroom for the trial. It was a case that made headlines every day and served as pure reality TV fodder.

O.J. and Nicole met when O.J. was still married to his first wife Marguerite. When he and Marguerite divorced in 1979, O.J. and Nicole continued their relationship and married in 1985. They had two children together. In 1989, O.J. was charged with spousal abuse towards Nicole and the two divorced in 1992. Two years later, Nicole and her friend Ronald were found murdered outside Nicole's condo.

Evidence found by detectives tied O.J. to the murders -- blood in and on his Bronco and a matching bloody glove found on his estate that went with the glove found at the scene of the crime.

O.J. was acquitted of the charges in the People v. Simpson, but he was held "responsible" for the deaths in the civil case filed later by the parents of Ronald Goldman and ordered to pay millions in damages. In the public's eye, this was confirmation that O.J. had actually been guilty and that in the criminal case, he had gotten off because of a technicality -- not because he wasn't guilty.

The theory applied here is the theory of victim precipitation, which holds that victims can be...

That is to say, they can be viewed as responsible for their own victimhood. There are two ways in which a person can be responsible for his or her own victimization -- either actively or passively. A passive causation occurs when the victim unwittingly does something to inspire an attack from the offender. This can happen in the cases of love triangles. An active causation occurs when the victim knowingly provokes the attacker -- through words or behavior or some other such provocation. This puts the victim in a more active role and thus puts him as responsible for the offense as well as being the victim.
In the case of Nicole Brown's death, her relationship with O.J., which had been the cause of violence in the past, was now complicated by divorce and the fact that Nicole had a new male friend in her life named Ronald. While Nicole may not have been actively antagonizing O.J. by seeing this man, the theory of victim precipitation could be applied to this case as a way of analyzing what transpired on that day.

O.J. knew what was happening between Nicole and Ronald and was severely angered by it. His passion was incited by the thought of Nicole being with another man. This could have been deliberate or unconscious provocation on Nicole's part -- the latter would not hold her accountable, while the former would. In either case, it was an evident power struggle from a masculine point-of-view, and O.J. always seeking to dominate, in his career as well as in his personal life (where this need found less successful results because it fit so unwell with the social norms described between the sexes), saw this as a play that would guarantee his dominance forever over Nicole.

At the same time, the passion that triggered O.J.'s offense may very well have tripped him over the line from sanity to insanity -- and the offense could be viewed in terms of temporary insanity or at the very least as a case of extreme emotional disturbance, which in some states is enough to allow an individual to escape a murder charge.

The theory of victim precipitation can be somewhat controversial for researchers, as some feel that it unfairly places blame on the victim -- but this is not essentially what the theory is about. It does not include making judgments but rather about finding causality, or a relationship between cause and effect. Obviously, if there is a clear provocation between two individuals and the one who is provoked reacts violently against the provoker, the provocative agent may be viewed and should be viewed as a party to his own victimization.

In cases, however, where the provocation is unconscious or unclear, it is much more difficult to identify external causality, because there may very well be internal causality that is consistent over a lifetime in particular…