Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town

Jon Krakauer

2015 • 418 pages

Ratings58

Average rating4.3

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A devastating exposé of colleges and local law enforcement.... A substantive deep dive into the morass of campus sex crimes, where the victim is too often treated like the accused.” —Entertainment Weekly Missoula, Montana, is a typical college town, home to a highly regarded state university whose beloved football team inspires a passionately loyal fan base. Between January 2008 and May 2012, hundreds of students reported sexual assaults to the local police. Few of the cases were properly handled by either the university or local authorities. In this, Missoula is also typical. In these pages, acclaimed journalist Jon Krakauer investigates a spate of campus rapes that occurred in Missoula over a four-year period. Taking the town as a case study for a crime that is sadly prevalent throughout the nation, Krakauer documents the experiences of five victims: their fear and self-doubt in the aftermath; the skepticism directed at them by police, prosecutors, and the public; their bravery in pushing forward and what it cost them. These stories cut through abstract ideological debate about acquaintance rape to demonstrate that it does not happen because women are sending mixed signals or seeking attention. They are victims of a terrible crime, deserving of fairness from our justice system. Rigorously researched, rendered in incisive prose, Missoula stands as an essential call to action.

Genre

social science

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Tom Randall

Between this and Guilty Until Proven Innocent, you can get a pretty good perspective of the issues.

April 12, 2016

Clifford Garstang

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the topic of rape is extremely important and should be discussed. On the other hand, I think the emphasis here is wrong. Krakauer bashes lawyers in general for their tactics in both prosecutorial choices and defense tactics, but I think that comes from a common misunderstanding of the our legal system. In fact, Krakauer's logic suggests that he is opposed to our “innocent until proven guilty” standard, at least when it comes to rape. Because he insists that the allegations of rape must be believed until disproven, the result is the opposite: the alleged rapist is guilty until proven innocent. And I'm very uncomfortable with that.

Instead, it seems to me, we should focus our attention on rape prevention. How do we ensure that rape doesn't happen? That's the real challenge of our time, not reforming the legal system.

October 17, 2015

Renata Sancken

This is a powerful book and one that is–and should be–hard to read. There are a lot of graphic, detailed descriptions of rape in this. Which isn't surprising, given the subject matter, but just, you know, heads up. I had to stop reading it before bedtime and move it to daylight hours only reading.

Anyway. Jon Krakauer is fantastic at spinning nonfiction narrative out of exhaustive research, and this is no exception. He's done a great job at connecting all the disparate threads of rape in Missoula (campus police, academic deans, local police, DOJ, victims, rapists, etc etc etc) into both a big-picture story for Missoula and also a microcosm for rape culture on college campuses and towns across the US.

Krakauer admits up front that he was shocked to hear a friend had been raped and has been embarrassed to realize how much he didn't know about rape culture. So, some of the things that are shocking to Krakauer are things that I (and let's be real, most women with internet connections) were already aware of? But his research and narrative arc here are still compelling, and honestly, I think it's great that an Important White Man has written a book like this. I hope men will read it.

July 6, 2015