Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
Years ago I worked for a non-profit
that built awareness of the issues surrounding and provided support for the victims
of sexual assault. I was rather
depressed after reading this book that things haven’t changed as much as I
would have hoped since my days of volunteering.
Krakauer follows a number of acquaintance
rape cases from the time of the assault throughout the ensuing legal
proceedings. He details the actions of the
victims shortly after the crimes and into the following years to illustrate how
these young women all acted differently and suffered the after effects of the
crime differently; this one short instance of violence at the hands of a man
they trusted changed their lives forever.
Not all of the women brought their cases to the legal system, some kept
silent and suffered in silence but some were extremely brave and stepped
forward. It was depressing to read how
law enforcement and the prosecutor’s office denied taking cases to trial again and
again despite a large amount of evidence in many cases. In many cases these women felt they were not
believed and that the officials they went to seemed to side with their
attackers. Thankfully change was brought
to Missoula, and in a small part to campuses across the country, in the past
years. But I have to wonder if it is
enough.
While this is an important book for
anyone to read, it is a difficult book to read.
The sexual assaults in this book are described in detail and the
suffering of the victims at the hands of their assailant and then at the hands of
the justice system are hard to bear witness to even passively through
reading.
