John Krakauer: Missoula; Rape and the Justice System in a College Town

This is a darkly powerful book. I had some awareness of this issue but this thoughtful exploration is stunning. It both tells the stories of individuals, institutions and attitudes embedded in sports-orientated colleges and college towns. All are inter-related. It seems to me that a town like this one, and many others, defines itself and has a sense of community, pride and selfhood that derives from the college sports team(s) that gives them that. I think that today, post recession where this sense of pride and self definition used to be largely (?) defined by the towns job situation but can no longer be the case, that this sense of self pride and definition while it was doubtless always significant, has now become even stronger.

In addition though it can also make the town insular/ more insular than it used to be. The defence counsels attack on a 'pointy-headed intellectual from Boston' at the start of his closing remarks is an example of that. Highly effective too, given that the jury would be drawn from a local pool.

The author very effectively conveys this sense of the social environment from which the events dealt with in the book are based.

But there are other elements too. There seems to be a definite sense of entitlement by the athletic stars that also plays a toxic and significant role. This is well shown, in a small but nevertheless very telling way in this article from the NYT. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/opinion/sunday/the-boys-in-the-clubhouse.html?_r=0

The recent revelation to about the ( apparently) sainted Peyton Manning ( see this article that has now got much rightful publicity in the last few days) is another. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-peyton-manning-squeaky-clean-image-built-lies-article-1.2530395

Connected to this there is also a strong sense of circling the wagons if the culture is attacked, particularly from within as shown by the reactions to the remarks by the Regent of the university who said that the university had recruited 'thugs' for the team. In an election for his post shortly following those remarks, he lost...

So these seem to be the main sociological elements that make up a part of this sad and sorry saga. However the other aspects are the individual stories themselves which are very powerfully told. It was a horrible revelation to me what women have to go through post rape and, particularly, in the courtroom and it makes the lack of reporting of such events horribly understandable. The women here who did come forward are true heroes.

I would be very interested to know what the situation is in the UK with these sort of sexual assault matters...I suspect that it is not as prevalent and endemic as in the USA, partly because the university system does not have the emphasis on a sports culture that is central to very many USA colleges ( in the UK the emphasis is on academic matters) and also because there is a different attitude to alcohol...not the almost puritanical view that many have here combined, often fatally, with the turning of a blind eye to illegal activities ( Condoning drinking under the legal age) which would I think help to convey a sense that some laws do not need to be observed. And if there is that attitude to one set of laws, the why should it not apply to others...like consent ( for the best illustration of which see this superb cartoon. http://youtu.be/oQbei5JGiT8 )A classic case of using humour to get a wholly serious point across.

Hope these comments produce some dialogue; that's why I have shared that not only the Bibliophiles members see this.