Award-winning writer and public health executive Michelle Bowdler's new memoir, "Is Rape a Crime?," indicts how sexual violence has been addressed for decades in our society, asking whether rape is a crime given that it is the least reported major felony, least successfully prosecuted, and fewer than 3% of reported rapes result in conviction. Cases are closed before they are investigated and DNA evidence sits for years untested and disregarded
Rape in this country is not treated as a crime of brutal violence but often as a question of he said / she said. Bowdler says given all this, it seems fair to ask whether rape is actually a crime.
Michelle Bowdler is the Executive Director of Health & Wellness at Tufts University and, after graduating from the Harvard School of Public Health, has worked on social justice issues related to rape for over a decade. "Is Rape a Crime?" is her first book.
