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Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Are abusers victims too?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Violence against women is a major public health crisis and a human rights problem, according to the World Health Organization.
Women worldwide are more likely to be sexually and physically assaulted and even murdered by their intimate partners in their own homes than by anyone else or anywhere else.
Violence against women transcends all of those things that usually divide people, such as race, culture, class, income levels, and wealth.
Poor Third World women and well-to-do, educated women in the United States, such as Gwinnett County resident and pre-school teacher Jennifer Barber Corbin and dental student Dorothy “Dolly” Hearn, have nearly an equal chance to encounter in-home violence and death by a spouse or lover.
Both Jennifer Corbin and Dolly Hearn were murdered in their homes by Barton Corbin, who was a dentist in Dacula before his arrest.
Last month, Barton Corbin admitted to killing both women as part of a plea agreement. Jennifer Corbin was killed on Dec. 4, 2004 by a gunshot wound to the head. Jennifer Corbin’s body was discovered by her 7-year -old son Dalton. Dolly Hearn was killed in almost an identical way by Corbin, when both were dental students at Medical College of Georgia in Augusta in 1990.
The crime scenes in both instances were made to appear like the women had committed suicide. Not until Jennifer Corbin died did investigators take a closer look at Barton Corbin in the death of Dolly Hearn. Barton Corbin finished dental school and went on with his life seemingly unaffected by the murder of Hearn for 14 years until the death of his wife Jennifer caused investigators to re-open the case.
Murder is the most dramatic outcome of domestic violence. Most domestic violence is chronic emotional and physical battering. This kind of violence may not kill you but it eats away at one’s self-esteem. Moreover, all domestic violence has the potential to become lethal.
In 2005, a total of 1,649 cases of domestic violence were presented to the Gwinnett Solicitor General’s office for prosecution, says Rosanna Szabo, Gwinnett County Solicitor General. Most of these cases were classified as misdemeanors. Szabo advises to get a more accurate count on reports of domestic violence in Gwinnett that one should go to the individual police departments within the county and ask for their statistics.
Domestic violence negatively impacts everyone. Even if you do not know a person affected by domestic violence you still cannot escape its impact. The consequence of domestic violence affects our health, educational and legal systems.
Moreover, the family and friends of women like Jennifer Barber Corbin and Dolly Hearn who were killed by domestic violence, forever mourn the loss of women who were their mothers, sisters, daughters, nieces, and best friends. And we - the larger society in the case of Jennifer and Dolly - have lost out on the gifts of women who chose to become an educator and a dentist and help their communities in needed and valuable ways.
Perhaps Barton Corbin in a strange way has suffered the largest and most devastating loss because of domestic violence because he seems to have lost his humanity and his soul.
Are batterers victims of domestic violence who didn’t get the help they needed? Should we feel sorry for Barton Corbin? Have you suffered from domestic violence and, if so, what did you do about it?
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