Real Rape - Softcover

Real Rape is a vital book for judges, lawyers, law students, legislators, police officers, and those working in rape crisis centers...Estrich's writing is calm, logical, eloquent, and often scathingly ironic. On its own terms, her book is valuable for its untangling of the various threads of illogic that have formed the centuries-old web that has prevented justice from being served. -- Catherine Foster Christian Science Monitor A powerful indictment of the sexism, double standards and institutionalized distrust of women that lie behind the legal system's refusal to treat 'simple' rape (the legal term for sexual assault in which the victim knows her assailant and no weapon or overt physical violence is used) as a real crime. This is an important book, well researched and tightly argued...Estrich addresses the issues directly, cogently and with the sense of urgency and outrage the seriousness of the crime deserves. -- K. Kaufmann San Francisco Examiner A persuasive argument for legal change. -- Carole Gould New York Times Book Review Real Rape is a powerful book. It reveals and empowers women's experiences in law. If it succeeds in creating a drive for the revision of rape law, it may enable women to get out from under the 'unfair struggle with the forces of perception.' -- Kim Lane Scheppele University of Chicago Law Review [A] brave, simply focused and powerfully reasoned book. -- Christina Robb Boston Globe

Many men believe that they can force women to have sex against their will and that it isn't rape-at least, not if the man knows the women and doesn't beat her up or wield a weapon. The law's casual treatment of such rape cases is the subject of this pioneering book, which is both a powerful expose of the often shocking facts and a trenchantly written call for reform.