Confronting Rape

The Feminist Anti-Rape Movement and the State

Public thinking about sexual assault over the last two decades has changed dramatically for the better. Activists in rape crisis centers can claim a feminist success story, but not always as they would choose. Through her study of six rape crisis centers in Los Angeles, Nancy Matthews shows how the State has influenced rape crisis work by supporting the therapeutic aspects of the anti-rape movement's agenda, and pushing feminist rape crisis centers towards conventional frameworks of social service provision, while ignoring the feminist political agenda of transforming gender relations and preventing rape.