Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Oct 04, 2015 Erin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, nonfiction, true-crime

I love Jon Krakauer (see the steady stream of five star reviews I've given to his books) and the subject matter of this book is extremely interesting to me. I think my problem with it (to the extent there was a problem....I maintain that three stars is still a "good" rating) was twofold: first it was a bit too long, often covering the same information multiple times. Second, I read it too closely in time to the (to me) far superior Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture and What We Ca I love Jon Krakauer (see the steady stream of five star reviews I've given to his books) and the subject matter of this book is extremely interesting to me. I think my problem with it (to the extent there was a problem....I maintain that three stars is still a "good" rating) was twofold: first it was a bit too long, often covering the same information multiple times. Second, I read it too closely in time to the (to me) far superior Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture and What We Can Do About It.

Actually, ASKING FOR IT was like the text book and MISSOULA was like the case study applying it, focusing on many of the rape myths outlined at length in ASKING FOR IT as well as the nature of a college sports town and the failures of a prosecutors office (I wonder if Fred Van Valkenburg and Kirsten Pabst can even continue to live in Missoula). Krakauer, as always, does an excellent job giving us all the relevant statistics then boiling them down to a few brave (and sometimes not-so-brave) victims and perpetrators and, as in ASKING FOR IT, tries to determine why so few victims seek help from the police, prosecutors and, here, school administrators (Krakauer does actually take a side on one issue and that is that universities should be allowed to continue to have their own judicial fora for alleged sexual assault cases) - and finds the same set of answers.

However, what remains key, and what Krakauer never forgets is that "women don't get raped because they were drinking or took drugs. Women do not get raped because they weren't careful enough. Women get rapes because someone raped them. Jessica Valenti The Purity Myth. We shouldn't either.

***EDITED TO ADD December 2024: visited Missoula this summer for a couple of days (as part of my race to visit all 50 states. My husband and I went to Boise, Idaho (45), spent a couple of days there then drove to Missoula (46) (mistake. We should have flown, stayed there for a couple of days then onto Whitefish and Glacier for the largest part of our trip.

We had a nice time but when we were in Missoula I kept thinking of this book. The odd thing is that when I was reading online sites people kept praising Missoula as a blue oasis in deeply red Montana, and saying how racist and sexist other areas in Montana were compared with Missoula. Then you compare that with what Krakauer had to say about the town and it made me look at the rest of the state with a side eye. I come from an incredibly red state but maybe that means something different on the east coast? I don’t know, but I couldn’t get the book out of my mind the whole time I was there, the same way that Wyoming just means Matthew Shepard to me, which clearly isn’t fair, but there it is. Books stick with you. I didn’t want a sweatshirt. ...more

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May 05, 2015 Samantha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub

A must-read that made me so angry I cried many times while reading. This is an important albeit devastating book.

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May 04, 2015 Melissa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I just want to punch a lot of things.

I didn't give this the full five stars because I want to see the data from the next 3-5 years from the MCAO office after the mindfuck that was the election result.

I have lived in the same college town for almost 20 years and I hold two degrees from that university. Over the last academic year, the campus community has been apprised of 10 rapes or attempted rapes (note: the email notifications never actually use the word "rape" but always "sexual assault") th ...more

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Apr 28, 2015 Carly Thompson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015, nonfiction, contemporary-issues

Powerful look at rape culture and the failure of authorities (police and county prosecutor) to seriously address the crime of rape in Missoula, MN. Krakauer reports on several different rapes of female college students with various results: the police investigated but the prosecutor did not charge the alleged rapists for the crime, one case where the rapist entered a guilty plea and only had to go through sentencing, and one case that went to trial (where the accused was found not guilty).

This i ...more

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