Real Rape

Rating:
Summary: Still the best analysis of rape law available
Review: Do not let the anti-feminist trolls put you off this book. It is not a polemic, and has no political agenda except to argue for long overdue changes in rape law. Estrich provides a detailed history of the development of rape law, showing the political and philosophical roots of a body of law that put the responsibility for controlling rape firmly on the shoulders of girls and women. As her review of the changes in rape laws shows, the changes instigated by women who knew the reality of rape were only partially successful in their goal of eliminating the underlying biases of the old laws.

This book should be read by anyone, male or female, who intends to go into a career in criminal justice or social services. I would also hope that legislators, who are charged with writing and revising laws, use this book to inform themselves about the toll that the old laws created for victims, the families of victims, and ultimately for society as a whole.

I have used this book in my graduate classes in criminal justice, and students respond to it enthusiastically.

Rating:
Summary: Still the best analysis of rape law available
Review: Do not let the anti-feminist trolls put you off this book. It is not a polemic, and has no political agenda except to argue for long overdue changes in rape law. Estrich provides a detailed history of the development of rape law, showing the political and philosophical roots of a body of law that put the responsibility for controlling rape firmly on the shoulders of girls and women. As her review of the changes in rape laws shows, the changes instigated by women who knew the reality of rape were only partially successful in their goal of eliminating the underlying biases of the old laws.

This book should be read by anyone, male or female, who intends to go into a career in criminal justice or social services. I would also hope that legislators, who are charged with writing and revising laws, use this book to inform themselves about the toll that the old laws created for victims, the families of victims, and ultimately for society as a whole.

I have used this book in my graduate classes in criminal justice, and students respond to it enthusiastically.

Rating:
Summary: Prof Estrich Doesn't Leaeve Much Doubt
Review: Rape laws in America - indeed, the whole origin of rape law in criminal law - fail to protect the victims. Prof. Estrich's book is only 'radical' if you consider it radical to suggest that, perhaps, after centuries of controling law, policy, and power, men might just have allowed their conception of sex to shape the rape laws they wrote and enforced.

A quick illustration. When adultery was still illegal in America, a woman could not bring forward a rape charge without disproving that she wanted it (ie disprove adultery). The only way of doing this was showing resistence. This is still where the burden generally lies. She doesn't have to prove the 'no,' but rather that she resisted and physically.

Rating:
Summary: How the Legal System Victimizes Women Who Say No
Review: This is a great book. A very factual analysis of laws pertaining to rape in the United States. Estrich points out that the male dominated legal system is reluctant to classify rape as violence, because their idea of violence is based on the sort of things that happen to men. Getting beaten up is violence, rape is just sex.

Estrich talks about many cases of women who attempted to take a rape case to court and lost because, for example, they didn't physically fight back for fear of being hurt by a much larger assailant, or because they were too scared to scream. Yet the legal system is all too ready to say that these terrified and victimized women "consented" -- to sexual attacks by strangers!

This is a powerful book, pointing out the need for revision of rape law.

Rating:
Summary: How the Legal System Victimizes Women Who Say No
Review: This is a great book. A very factual analysis of laws pertaining to rape in the United States. Estrich points out that the male dominated legal system is reluctant to classify rape as violence, because their idea of violence is based on the sort of things that happen to men. Getting beaten up is violence, rape is just sex.

Estrich talks about many cases of women who attempted to take a rape case to court and lost because, for example, they didn't physically fight back for fear of being hurt by a much larger assailant, or because they were too scared to scream. Yet the legal system is all too ready to say that these terrified and victimized women "consented" -- to sexual attacks by strangers!

This is a powerful book, pointing out the need for revision of rape law.

Rating:
Summary: Prof Estrich Doesn't Leave Much Doubt
Review: Tis book is about how rape laws in America fail to protect the victims. Prof. Estrich's book is only 'radical' if you consider it radical to suggest that, perhaps, after centuries of controling law and social policy, men might just have allowed their conception of sex to shape the rape laws they wrote and enforced.

A quick illustration. When adultery was still illegal in America, a woman could not bring forward a rape charge without disproving that she wanted it (ie disprove adultery). The only way of doing this was by showing resistence. That is still where the burden generally lies. A woman doesn't have to just prove that she said 'no,' but rather that she resisted physically.