Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 17, 1993 TAG: 9310170209
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by MARY WELEK ATWELL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SEXUAL VIOLENCE. By Linda A. Fairstein. William Morrow. $23.
These two books deal with virtually the same subject. Both are set in New York City; both are written by female Assistant District Attorneys with long experience in prosecuting rape and other sex crimes; both detail stories of the criminal justice system at work. But the books leave quite different impressions with the reader.
The tone of "Sex Crimes" is anger - righteous, but controlled anger. I can imagine Alice Vachss' voice throughout this book, speaking slowly and deliberately, building a case with empathy for the victim and contempt for the offender. Vachss finds many faults in the system - juries who embody public prejudices about rape (the most destructive is a tendency to blame the victim) and judges who give permission for a jury to exercise its prejudices.
She spent ten years working with sex crimes prosecutions in Queens. During that time, Vachss was frustrated with ambitious District Attorneys whose top priority was "productivity," a high rate of convictions. This attitude often meant an unwillingness to take tough cases to trial regardless of the dangerousness of the offender or the viciousness of the crime.
She fought an uphill battle to bring sensitivity to a process corrupted by ambition and internal politics.
Fairstein, on the other hand, enjoyed a completely different working environment as Director of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit in Manhattan. There District Attorney Robert Morgenthau was committed to providing the staff and resources to bring sex criminals to trial and conviction. The different experiences of these two authors must account, at least in part, for the contrast in their perspectives.
While Vachss sees a few instances of justice done against a dark background of incompetence and abuse, Fairstein sees progress - both legislative and judicial - in the opportunities for justice afforded to rape victims.
But there are common themes as well. Both authors share a commitment to put the blame for sex crimes where it belongs - not on the victim or on society but on the rapist. Both reiterate the argument that rape is a crime of violence not of sexuality. They agree also that, to date, no effective treatment exists for rapists, that incarceration affords society's best protection.
As Alice Vachss comments, the seriousness of theft is measured by the value of what was stolen. If the same criterion were applied to sex crimes, virtually all those convicted would be serving life sentences.
I found these two books well worth reading. Although Fairstein writes in an annoying semi-fictional style that allows her to tell us what was in other people's minds and Vachss' book has a much sharper edge, both can challenge social prejudices and enlighten us about the outrage of sex crimes.
Mary Welek Atwell teaches in the Department of Criminal Justice at Radford University.
by CNB