Jon Krakauer is a renowned author known for his stories and biographical accounts of adventure and terror in remote parts of the world. He writes tales of nonfiction with thematic ideas that are now taught in classrooms all across the globe. His newest book, Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town, deserves to be taught everywhere to every single high school system. The book takes place in the center of Missoula, Montana and tells the horrific stories of a slew of different women who have been sexually assaulted. The book has dialogue from inside courtrooms and phone calls between victims and rapists.
Rape stories are ones that usually make people’s’ skin crawl and are incredibly uncomfortable to talk about. This book, however graphic, has the capacity and ability to teach teens about the misconceptions of rape and the demoralizing mental effect this crime can have on victims. Not only did I learn about how universities across the country deal with this crime, I also had the opportunity to learn more about how our own judicial system approaches rape cases.
In an interview with National Public Broadcasting (NPR), author Jon Krakauer explained the severe inequalities in the treatment of rape cases and the rape victims in comparison to those affected by other crimes.
I mean, there’s this mythology out there that women lie about being raped. In fact, some women do lie about being raped — between 2 and 10 percent is the best research. Many studies show this. So it’s really a small amount. It’s not too different from other crimes. The difference is in other crimes the victim isn’t assumed to be lying. You know, you take the victim at their word. And that’s — the way rape victims are treated is different than any other crime. You know, the book is — it’s sort of a really close look about what it’s like to be the victim of a rape: the pain you go through and the obstacles you have to achieve any kind of justice.
I do not want to discriminate and make the assumption that men are not raped, because I know that is false. In fact about 1.8% of the male population will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. As a young woman, however, I can say firmly that I do not go a day without worrying about the possibility of this crime happening to me. I think it is important to be able to talk about this and to create a place for women and men to comfortably discuss rape in hopes that rape can no longer be something that men typically have a hard time understanding. While this is a generalization and undoubtedly has its exceptions, this tends to be the case. Through this book I learned about multiple characters who showed no remorse. In fact, in one particular case, the entirety of the town stood behind the rapist and the victim was shamed for months before the case was finally taken to trial.
This book reads like a Netflix drama series: page turning and emotionally investing, while also extremely educational for all ages. It is a book that all high school students should read before entering college. It is a book that all fathers should read. It is a book that all teachers should teach. It is a book that absolutely anyone can learn from. Jon Krakauer wrote yet another book that involved moments of extreme terror and alienation from the rest of society, except this time the terror was caused by so-called trusted friends and the alienation was from a college campus that students should be able to call home.
