Summary Of Missoula By Jon Krakauer

This rotation I have finished reading Missoula by Jon Krakauer. The book is divided into six parts, “Allison,” “Before the Law Sits a Gatekeeper,” “Unwanted Attention,” “Scales of Justice,” “Trial by Jury,” and finally, “Aftershocks.” I found the book extremely informing and it really helped me understand the complexities of addressing sexual assault at both the university and state level. Going into this book, I knew the process of handling cases of rape and sexual assault at the university level was complex, but I had no idea how complex it truly was.
There was one case in which a student named Cecilia Washburn was raped by a fellow student and she reported it to the school. Her attacker was found guilty at three different court levels before

For them, “‘a rapist is a guy in a ski mask, wielding a knife, who drags women into the bushes. But these undetected rapists don’t wear masks or wield knives or drag women into the bushes. So they had absolutely no sense of themselves as rapists and were only too happy to talk about their sexual behaviors’” (157). This quote made me realize that everyone could stand from more education as to what consent is and what constitutes sexual assault because in these situations, these men did not view their actions as rape even though they were having sex with women who were either passed out or too intoxicated to

I liked this because instead of just focusing on the violent experiences of the victims, we were able to follow their stories as they entered recovery and gradually pressed charges, offering the reader a glimpse of the justice system at both the school and state level. Allison, the girl we are introduced to at the beginning of the book, is present throughout the duration of the book. I was able to read about her initial attack, her year spent recovering from the attack, and the harassment she faced from other members of the town who believed that she made up her attack to ruin Beau’s life (Beau is one of her childhood friends). She decides to take her case to court so her attacker would spend time behind bars. What shocked me the most is how people still rushed to Beau’s defense even though he confessed to taking advantage of Allison. For example, Beau’s teacher could not even bring himself to say that Beau should be punished for what he did to Allison, even though he acknowledged that what she went through was terrible (268). However, unlike many victims of sexual assault, Allison received justice: Beau was sentenced to 10 years in the Montana State Prison