"Missoula"

(Rape and the Justice System in a College Town)
-by jon krakauer
2015
In this investigation of the rape epidemic that swamped the University of Montana in the early part of this century, krakauer discovers that the real scandal is that UM rapes are statistically in line with the national average. The aspect that sensationalized these convictions and allegations was that so many of them involved the football team - leading to uncomfortable questions about the culture of entitlement that grows up around athletes who are put on a pedestal, receive abundant social and sexual perks, and become accustomed to having coaches and administrators make their problems disappear. The deeper issue that krakauer doesn't touch upon is why men rape at all - the horrific cocktail of alcohol and a sexually repressed culture of violence. And to a certain extent giving attention to glamour scandals like this distracts from the larger story - rape is a staggering epidemic which has been with us for many thousands of years, and which we've only begun to uncover and understand. What krakauer does very well however, is explore what happens to victims who come forward. Our adversarial justice system is exposed as being not about justice, but simply winning (or not) - a zero-sum mentality that humanity direly needs to leave behind. Psychology experts tell us that to expose a woman to a rape kit exam, then make her relive the assault over and over in the judicial process, be shunned or vilified by disbelievers, undergo "professional" character assassination, all for the slim likelihood of winning one of the few cases that actually make it to court, is similar to the trauma of rape itself. We learn why rape victim behavior and testimony are often counter-intuitive or contradictory. The book follows the cases of several brave women who endured all this, on top of losing their very personhood. The phenomenon of rape is on a level with one other reality - soldiers who survive war. At best, it takes decades to undo the damage.
"Missoula" is powerful, but not krakauer's best. He's written brilliant books about human frailty pitted against nature, modern war, and the appalling barbarity of the mormon religion, but with this one you get the sense that he was so outraged (and humbled by his own previous ignorance), that he subsumed his normally wonderful prose to become little more than a court stenographer. He gives you the public details, as they unfold. He touches upon the personal damage endured by the victims. The result is informative and damning, just don't pick up this one expecting the comforting familiarity of the author's own voice.