Military Review English Edition November-December 2013

MR BOOK REVIEWS F E AT UR E D R E V I E W RAPE IS RAPE How Denial, Distortion, and Victim Blaming are Fueling a Hidden Acquaintance Rape Crisis Jody Raphael, J.D. Lawrence Hill Books Chicago, 2013, 258 pages, $18.95 W ITH THE CONGRESSIONAL spotlight firmly fixed on the nation’s military brass as they struggle to find explanations and solutions for the apparent explosion in reported rape cases, it’s easy to conclude that the uniformed services are uniquely inept at dealing with sexual assault in the ranks. But, if there’s one thing Jody Raphael’s exhaustively researched and documented book, Rape is Rape: How Denial, Distortion, and Victim Blaming are Fueling a Hidden Acquaintance Rape Crisis, achieves best, it is showing that the military’s spectacular failure in handling the reality of rape is just part of a larger societal failure to treat rape like the horrific crime it is. Raphael, an attorney and academic researcher, opens and closes her unblinking analysis of acquaintance rape with the 2007 case history of how a 19-year-old U.S. Air Force enlisted woman wound up being court-martialed for her own gang rape, while her three airmen attackers went free. But the bulk of her book—a fast yet far-from-easy read—examines acquaintance rape (especially date rape) as a national, if not global, plague depriving its victims of basic human freedoms, justice, and dignity. Legally defining and verifying a rape is more than the cut-and-dried “he said, she said” that the public sees in media accounts drawn from police reports. In addition, because the process of proving MILITARY REVIEW ? November-Decembe 2013 a crime actually occurred is laden with so many evidentiary variables, prejudices, and preconceptions uncommon to other criminal offenses, Raphael contends that what she terms “rape denial” and “victim blaming” often obstruct justice. “Rape is probably the only offense in which a suspect can successfully defend himself by claiming that the victim consented to the crime,” she writes, “which causes the police to intensely scrutinize the believability of the injured party’s description of events.” Through a string of detailed, sometimes unpleasantly graphic pers ?????????????????????????+?q5??????t??qI????t??????qQ???t?I????????????)????????????????????????????????d?????)???????????????????????????????????)I?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????)????????????????????????????????????????)???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????)=??????????I???????????Q????????????)???????????????????????????????????????)?????????Q?????????????????????????????)??????????q ???????????????????????????)????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????)?????????U?????????????????????????)??????????????????????????????????????)Q?????????????????????????????????????? ??)????????????????????????????????????????)?????????????????????????????t)Q????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????q???????????t????+?q????????????t??????????????????????????)??????????????????I??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????)????????????????)???????????????????????????????????)???????????????????????????????????)????????????Q??????????????Q????????????)Q??????????????????????????????)5?????? ?????????Q????????e????????????)????????????????????????????????????????(??((0

Military Review English Edition November-December 2013 | Page 99