For centuries, rape has been investigated by law enforcement and prosecuted by the legal system in a way adversarial to victims. Women are often accused of lying about sexual assault or made to think it was somehow their fault. It is a reality that may be on the brink of changing, but nothing can undo the damage that already has been done by such misogyny. In A FALSE REPORT, T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong examine this horrific phenomenon in general and in particular with a case study of a hunt for a serial rapist.

In August 2008, an 18-year-old woman named Marie was raped for hours by an intruder in her Lynnwood, Washington apartment. Marie, who had been traumatized as a child and who only recently had begun to enjoy a stable life, recounted to police and friends the frightening events. But when one person close to her expressed to police doubt that Marie had actually been raped, the investigation came to a halt. Instead of looking for a rapist, the detectives sought to discredit Marie’s story. And, when under pressure and stress she recanted, they charged her with falsely reporting a crime. Marie’s fragile new life began to unravel: she lost her job, her apartment, and many opportunities to seek the help she needed as a rape survivor.

"A FALSE REPORT is a terrifying and timely look at a crime that affects so many women in America, and the ways that we as a society can do better at investigating it and caring for survivors."

In 2011, in the small mountain towns close to Denver, Colorado, three women, with no connection to each other, were raped in their homes by a man who woke them up, bound them and took pictures of them. All three were made to shower before the man left. The details of the crime were very similar to those in Marie’s case. But whereas her accusations were dismissed, the women in Colorado were heard and believed, and the teams working on the cases used all the tools at their disposal to find the rapist.

While A FALSE REPORT is technically in the true crime genre, it is far from sensationalist or tawdry. Miller and Armstrong are concerned with how ideas about women and sex crimes color how they are investigated. There are some important insights here: sociological, criminological, legal and cultural. The survivors are the focus of the narrative, and though their stories are their own, they also symbolize the ways in which law enforcement and the courts can either inflict more harm or support women who have been raped.

Miller and Armstrong do introduce readers to the rapist and share his perspective on his life and horrendous crimes. The book is graphic, though the authors show restraint in describing the crimes. Readers may be equally disturbed by the neutral presentation of the rapist’s point of view. Perhaps a bit less of it and more analysis of the social and cultural norms that allow the dismissal of Marie’s claims would’ve made the book even stronger.

As it is, A FALSE REPORT is a terrifying and timely look at a crime that affects so many women in America, and the ways that we as a society can do better at investigating it and caring for survivors.