Sunday, September 6, 2015

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

   This one was a topic of immediate interest to me. Like Missoula, I come from a football town and I have a background in research with victims of domestic violence.   It seemed incredible to me the number of rapes  that were reported in a year.  It certainly makes one wonder how many went unreported and it shows, in my opinion, a systemic problem both with the way we treat (entitle) sports figures and how we approach victims of violent crimes, particularly rape.

This was a difficult book to read.  I had to read it a little at a time, then think about it, and then come back and read some more.  The book follows many different victims of rape that all come from the Missoula area or attend college there.   It was amazing to see how differently law enforcement handled the different scenarios.   I don't want to go into too much detail and give the story away, but I think that this book should be mandatory reading for every highschool senior.   It was eye opening.   I can't say that I enjoyed it but it did open my mind and I learned a lot from it.  I would recommend it highly especially to young women and fans of nonfiction  current issue type works.  5 out of 5 stars for me.

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