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

Led by Hope Jennings Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, Director, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

In Missoula, Jon Krakauer provides a powerful narrative about a series of sexual assaults at the University of Montana that were reported between 2008 and 2012. Krakauer investigates how many of these assaults were mishandled by either the university or local authorities, and chronicles the experiences of several women in Missoula and their attempts to seek justice. His dispassionate, carefully documented account of what these women endured cuts through the abstract ideological debates about campus rape by challenging and exposing many of the myths surrounding rape culture. Krakauer makes clear why rape is so prevalent on American campuses, and why rape victims are so reluctant to report assault or acquaintance rape, as the victim often comes under more suspicion than the alleged perpetrator. College-age women are the survivors of a terrible crime and deserving of compassion from society and fairness from a justice system that is clearly broken.