A review by threegoodrats
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer

3.0

3.5 This is not a book that is pleasurable in any way to read, and many parts contain detailed descriptions of rape so it can be difficult to get through. But it's an important story, and an informative look at how the justice system and the campus disciplinary systems work (or don't). A lot of it infuriated me the way that Catch and Kill infuriated me. The way rape cases became all about destroying the lives of the perpetrators, the fact that these guys were so entitled, and the way that many in the justice system disregarded or dismissed what happened and belittled the victims saying that they just felt bad about having sex and decided to call it rape. Oh, that made me want to slap some people! And some of them were women too, which makes it worse. It was really unbelievably sad how the authorities worked against the victims, and Krakauer expertly pointed out how this is different from other crimes (if you report that you're a victim of burglary, for example, police start from the assumption that you're telling the truth.) I came away with a lot of admiration for these young women who experienced such violence and were willing to go through a process that just ripped them apart again because they knew it was the right thing. It sucks that our culture is so judgemental about women who are raped, but ready to make every excuse for their rapists.