Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town

Amid the opportunities offered by the newfound independence of college is the chance to make new friends. Like most freedoms, this independence involves risks. For two of the girls in Krakauer's latest, the risks seemed typical of college life: party hard and then pass out. But as these girls lay in a semi-comatose state of inebriation, they were raped. They were raped by football players. This second fact makes everything much harder, from the odds of fighting off a strong attacker to the courage it takes to make an accusation that could affect the performance of the football team. The author makes his way through this highly charged topic with typical equanimity; yes, some girls do make false accusations, and truthfully, a community will protect football players to a degree beyond reason. But the focus continually returns to the lives of the young women. Even when armed with evidence from rape kits and testimony of witnesses, they are often accused of "asking for it" by lying unconscious on a couch, or by not screaming for help. Some young men and women never quite recover from the ordeal of testifying in court and then living with the subsequent