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Social Science Criminology

Stranger Rape

Rapists, Masculinity and Penal Governance

by (author) Kevin Bonnycastle

Publisher
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Initial publish date
Oct 2012
Category
Criminology, General, Gender Studies
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781442645363
    Publish Date
    Oct 2012
    List Price
    $87.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442613461
    Publish Date
    Oct 2012
    List Price
    $42.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442662445
    Publish Date
    Oct 2012
    List Price
    $38.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Out of print

This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.

Description

Kevin Denys Bonnycastle’s Stranger Rape is an in-depth study of the lives of fourteen men who raped women unknown to them. Using new data derived from official offender files, offender program observations, and the men’s personal histories, Bonnycastle documents, compares, and contrasts their experiences from boyhood to adulthood and eventual incarceration.

Bonnycastle argues that stranger-rapists do not fit existing portrayals of them as predatory monsters or misogynist everymen. Instead, through an innovative approach that builds on research and theory from feminism, gender studies, critical criminology, and masculinity studies, she positions stranger-rape as a matter of experiences of pain and powerlessness rather than of male power and control. The book’s major achievement is to recognize rapists and rape in their particularity and complexity in the hope that critical thinking about their lives and about their experiences in penal contexts and programs may eventually lead to what one respondent called his ‘road to redemption.’

Please note that this book includes graphic content.

About the author

Kevin Denys Bonnycastle (1956–2011) was an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at St. Mary’s University.

Kevin Bonnycastle's profile page