Women, Rape and Justice Unravelling the Rape Conundrum

Fifty years of feminist critique, official reports and new policies, but minimal change in rape prevalence and stereotypes. Jan Jordan shows why: Sexual violence against women is sustained by deep-seated gender inequalities, patriarchal institutions and damaging cultures of masculinity. Yet this is an ultimately optimistic book: all these things can change. And should.

-Raewyn Connell, author of Gender: In World Perspective

Jan has been thinking and writing about rape for three decades, and this book is a culmination and a challenge - that to create social justice we need deeper understanding of why and how sexual violence is a fault line in patriarchy.

- Liz Kelly, Director: Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit, London Metropolitan University

Jordan provides an essential history of the evolution of justice responses to rape and efforts towards change that end not far from where they started. Non-validating, silencing, and traumatizing treatment continue to emanate from the very systems sustained across the globe assigned the duty of norm enforcement. She embeds rape into patriarchy to shine light on the false beliefs and stereotypes, as well as the power to control, that stain both citizen response and "justice" decisions at all levels of the criminal legal system. In this age of empirically-supported, multi-level explanations for why rape happens and then is disappeared, it is crucial that many years of scholarship elaborating the role of gender dynamics not be lost. The evocative words of victims and key players are powerful voices throughout and anchor timeless scholarship into lived experience.

- Mary Koss, Regents' Professor, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona

This book should not be read as a counsel of despair as Jan Jordan describes the sustaining characteristics of gender inequalities leading to the ossification of reform attempts aimed at preventing sexual violence against women and girls. The ubiquity of rape across time and continents is documented by case examples, original research and international studies. But it is through her meticulous historical analysis and international comparisons that we come to a greater understanding of why men not only rape but are protected from sanction. Therein lies hope that with such knowledge society can do better.

- Jennifer Brown, Visiting Professor, Mannheim Centre for the Study of Criminology and Criminal Justice, London School of Economics and Political Science