From bestselling author Jon Krakauer, a stark, powerful,
meticulously reported narrative about a series of sexual
assaults at the University of Montana — stories that
illuminate the human drama behind the national plague of
campus rape
Missoula, Montana, is a typical
college town, with a highly regarded state university,
bucolic surroundings, a lively social scene, and an
excellent football team — the Grizzlies — with
a rabid fan base.
The Department of Justice
investigated 350 sexual assaults reported to the Missoula
police between January 2008 and May 2012. Few of these
assaults were properly handled by either the university or
local authorities. In this, Missoula is also typical.
A DOJ report released in December of 2014
estimates 110,000 women between the ages of eighteen and
twenty-four are raped each year. Krakauer’s devastating
narrative of what happened in Missoula makes clear why rape
is so prevalent on American campuses, and why rape victims
are so reluctant to report assault.
Acquaintance rape is a crime like no other.
Unlike burglary or embezzlement or any other felony, the
victim often comes under more suspicion than the alleged
perpetrator. This is especially true if the victim is
sexually active; if she had been drinking prior to the
assault — and if the man she accuses plays on a popular
sports team. The vanishingly small but highly publicized
incidents of false accusations are often used to dismiss her
claims in the press. If the case goes to trial, the woman’s
entire personal life becomes fair game for defense
attorneys.
This brutal reality goes a long way
towards explaining why acquaintance rape is the most
underreported crime in America. In addition to physical
trauma, its victims often suffer devastating psychological
damage that leads to feelings of shame, emotional paralysis
and stigmatization. PTSD rates for rape victims are
estimated to be 50%, higher than soldiers returning from
war.
In Missoula, Krakauer chronicles
the searing experiences of several women in Missoula — the
nights when they were raped; their fear and self-doubt in
the aftermath; the way they were treated by the police,
prosecutors, defense attorneys; the public vilification and
private anguish; their bravery in pushing forward and what
it cost them.
Some of them went to the police.
Some declined to go to the police, or to press charges, but
sought redress from the university, which has its own,
non-criminal judicial process when a student is accused of
rape. In two cases the police agreed to press charges and
the district attorney agreed to prosecute. One case led to a
conviction; one to an acquittal. Those women courageous
enough to press charges or to speak publicly about their
experiences were attacked in the media, on Grizzly football
fan sites, and/or to their faces. The university expelled
three of the accused rapists, but one was reinstated by
state officials in a secret proceeding. One district
attorney testified for an alleged rapist at his university
hearing. She later left the prosecutor’s office and
successfully defended the Grizzlies’ star quarterback in his
rape trial. The horror of being raped, in each woman’s case,
was magnified by the mechanics of the justice system and the
reaction of the community.
Krakauer’s
dispassionate, carefully documented account of what these
women endured cuts through the abstract ideological debate
about campus rape. College-age women are not raped because
they are promiscuous, or drunk, or send mixed signals, or
feel guilty about casual sex, or seek attention. They are
the victims of a terrible crime and deserving of compassion
from society and fairness from a justice system that is
clearly broken.
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