Released earlier this year, Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town is
the latest effort by acclaimed author Jon Krakauer, who's written such renown titles as Into the Wild, Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven.
The book deals with real stories and accounts of rape and
sexual assaults in the college town of Missoula in Montana, USA during the
2000s to 2013. Missoula is described as
not only a college town, but one that is in love with the college’s football
team. The town loves its football team. There is a strong sense of spirit and
camaraderie, amongst the football enthusiasts.
Which makes the book all the more distressing as he recants multiple
stories of rape, specifically involving those in the college football team.
Krakauer tells a number of stories of rape in Missoula,
however, the crux of the book focuses primarily on two cases: one of Allison
Huguet and another in Cecilia Washburn.
These are two stories with two different outcomes, however, are perhaps
representative of the activity that was going on within the campus. More than just providing insight into sexual
assault, Krakauer focuses on an even tougher subset of this type of crime, namely,
the idea of acquaintance rape. This is
the act of being raped by someone you know.
Krakauer provides us with a full picture of each story. We learn not only about the rape incidents
but also about their general upbringing and lifestyle, their personal struggles
with being victims, the courtroom battles and the fallouts from those trials. In both cases, the accused rapists were star
football players from the college football team, and friends of the victims. The stories become more difficult to read as
we learn of how the victims become even more victimized. With the girls bringing the accused to trial,
they are shamed by the community for bringing such negative light and publicity
to their beloved football stars.
Krakauer also dives into the justice system, and how the
existing system is unfit and perhaps too antiquated to handle the trials and
cases involving acquaintance rape. At
one point, the crimes in Missoula become so rampant that the government at the
national level has to dive in and investigate the lack of attention given by
the local justice system regarding these cases.
The book is mired in some controversy, as some say that his
opinion appears too biased while others question why he chose to zero in on
Missoula, a town that he admits within the book where the average rape occurrence
is no more than the national average across the US. Krakauer makes no qualms about his bias
though. At the conclusion of the book,
he tells a personal story of how the subject matter landed on his plate in the
first place. And perhaps it’s from this
angle that lands him the biased edge.
Despite the different controversies surrounding the book, it
is still a fascinating read and educational, as someone who is unfamiliar with
the idea of acquaintance rape. Most of
the time, when I read about stories of rape and sexual assault in the news, it
is often cases where someone is assaulted by a stranger. In fact, Krakauer sheds light on this
perspective. The sentiment that I have
is quite common; he states that most people associate rapists with someone
hiding in the dark gloomy shadows with a ski mask on. The truth is, a lot of times, this isn’t the
case. The rapist can be anyone and even
someone you know. Even more unfortunate
is that a lot of times, the cases of acquaintance rape go unreported.
Missoula is a grim read, but a worthwhile read and one that
sheds light on a crime that we don’t always hear about. Until next time, later geeks!
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