The Voices of Rape (Hardcover)

by Janet Bode (Author) "Half a lifetime ago, I was forced at knifepoint to a garbage dump and gang-raped..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Harriet Lessel, Mall Rat (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Rape happens, and there's no doubt that young adults need to understand its dynamics, whether for prevention, healing, or simply to achieve an informed compassion for victims of this violent crime. Bode interviews teenagers and professionals and presents monologues from several perspectives: Nicole, 17, describes being date raped--twice; a police officer tells what goes on in his mind when he interviews victims; a psychologist talks about juvenile sex offenders. In a chapter on the court system, comments by a defense attorney, a prosecutor, and a judge illuminate the difficulty of achieving justice in rape cases. There are several notable gaps: no male victims speak out (although the author does address male victims in several passages), discussion of incest or child sexual abuse is negligible, and some of the most disturbing and ambiguous monologues--such as one by a boy who casually participated in several "gang bangs"--are presented without interpretation or comment. The adult experts who populate the second half of the book tend to lecture. While this book conveys some information very well, it is far from thorough. For those collections with room for only one book on rape, it should be Andrea Parrot's Coping with Date Rape and Acquaintance Rape (Rosen, 1988). --Carolyn Polese, Gateway Community School, Arcata, CA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
There are some notable changes in this update of an important 1990 book that took a wide-angle look at the crime of rape by using the first-person testimonies of a rapist, a survivor, a law-enforcement officer, and others. The format here is more spacious, thanks to extra leading and the judicious use of boldface subheads and boxed insets (usually excerpts from newspaper articles). A list of help-line resources has been incorporated into one of the chapters, and Bode uses an endnote to update the life of each of the speakers. A sampling of letters Bode has received from readers over the years, along with her earnest replies, is also included. Two black-and-white cartoon segments, by Ida Marx Blue Spruce, appear as well: one, a retelling of the prison interview Bode conducted with a convicted rapist; the second, a new story used to illustrate the double standard regarding male rape. Although they are technically good and serve to break up the text nicely, they aren't entirely successful: the shocking dispassion of the rapist's testimony, for example, felt in full in the previous edition, is lost in the stripped-down cartoon version. On other fronts, however, this is a thoughtful reworking that maintains the integrity of a fine book. Stephanie Zvirin --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

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• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover
• Publisher: Gloucester Pr (August 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0531109593
• ISBN-13: 978-0531109595
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,015,818 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• Also Available in: Paperback (Revised) |  Mass Market Paperback  |  School & Library Binding  |  All Editions