Missoula

 
 
Missoula
Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
by John Krakauer
Doubleday

2015

 

 

From time to time, many of my coworkers will all read the same book. This time it was Missoula. (Look for me to read the enigmatic 7HEH at some point, for the same reason!)
 

Krakauer delivers what I understand to be his signature style of present-day reporting inter-mixed with historical background and relevant scientific research in a way that's engaging and impactful. It feels strange to call a book like this a page-turner, but certainly it's one I wanted to keep reading.

 
Missoula covers the cases of several acquaintance rapes, almost all involving football players, that took place at the University of Montana between 2008-2012, at a time when both UM and the town of Missoula were under investigation by the Department of Justice for their handling of reported rapes.

 
Krakauer uses one case, of a young woman who was raped by a childhood friend after he joined the UM football team, as the centerpiece of the book. He was expelled, arrested, pleaded guilty, sentenced to prison, and had his appeal for a more lenient sentence rejected. Along the way, we look at other cases where accused rapists are allowed to remain at school, are never arrested, or are found not guilty at trial. 

 
The one successful case is probably only successful because the rapist confesses to his crime on tape. Even then, the fans remain behind him, and each judicial decision requires the victim to advocate forcefully for him to face consequences. Every other case results in the rapist escaping any consequences.
 

Krakauer covers the current research on 'non-stranger rape.' About 25% or more of women will be raped in their lifetimes, usually while they're between the ages of 16-24, usually by someone they know, and most will never report it to the police. It's a much smaller proportion of men who rape, perhaps 5-10%, but almost all of those men become serial rapists, each responsible for hurting numerous others. They generally don't think of themselves as 'rapists' or what they do as 'rape,' and most are never punished. Police and the public tend to think that about half the women who accuse someone of rape are lying; in fact fewer than 10% of accusations appear to be false. Women who are raped by an acquaintance rather than a stranger, and women who consumed any drugs or alcohol beforehand, are less likely to be believed.
 

Acquaintance rape is a crime, it's against the law, but laws alone are not enough. Laws are just words on paper unless people are willing to enforce them. So if it's a crime, but the police won't arrest, prosecutors won't indict, juries won't convict, and the public won't believe, then it's a crime that will only rarely be punished, only under exceptional circumstances, like if the police record a confession, and the victim has both the stamina and social support to endure the trauma of multiple rounds of adversarial legal procedures. 

 
What we see in Missoula is that for a significant proportion of both the general public and the people with jobs in the criminal justice system, things like the local celebrity status of playing football and adages like 'boys will be boys' are enough to prevent those laws from being enforced in most cases. Although UM and Missoula were investigated by the DOJ, they are, unfortunately, very typical of colleges and town in America.