Thursday, April 14, 2016

The Book Everyone Should Read After Ghomeshi: Jon Krakauer's Missoula

This was a truly powerful book that should be read far and wide so that more people can understand how our criminal justice system, with its adherence to rape myths and unwillingness to prosecute even a small fraction of sexual assault cases, has made so challenging for victims of sexual violence. I hope that this book gets ingested beyond those already convinced, but if not it also provides strong arguments as to why so many women choose not to report rapes and why even those that manage to get their assaults tried in court face vicious prosecution from overly zealous defence council. 

One thing of note, I notice that many reviews commented after reading Missoula how horrible men are, and yes rapists absolutely are horrible. But what I found most shocking was how horrible lawyers are (and I say this as a lawyer). From insensitive or intentionally obtuse prosecutors, to the most vicious defence lawyer, the criminal justice system as it is currently designed appears so ill-suited to deal with rape and it makes one wonder if there can be a better system to deal with sexual assault. 

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