Real Rape

Excellent, important work. Far too many people still believe that most perpetrators of rape are strangers. Incest, date rape and acquaintance rape have not yet been recognized by the public as the daily reality of all women and men. This work inspired me to read Andrea Dworkin's INTERCOURSE. Thank you to all those who are brave enough to read, talk and educate others about REAL RAPE. My eternal gratitude goes out to Susan Estrich for her courage to tell it like it is!

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.

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.