Up Against a Wall: Rape Reform and the Failure of Success. By Rose Corrigan. New York: New York University Press, 2013. 344 pp. $65 cloth and $24.00 paperback.

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12099
• Date: 01 September 2014
• Published date: 01 September 2014

provide an exhilarating reading experience: encountering a claim

about Antigone that seems difficult to believe and then proceeding

as the author provides a careful and nuanced presentation of the

evidence in its favor.Contemporary studies of law and politics stand

to be invigorated by this intervention.

∗∗∗

Up Against a Wall: Rape Reform and the Failure of Success. By Rose

Corrigan. New York: New York University Press, 2013. 344 pp.

$65 cloth and $24.00 paperback.

Reviewed by Renée Heberle, Department of Political Science and

Public Administration, University of Toledo

When considering the scope of rape law reform over the last 40

years, including the changes in how rape is defined, rules of evi-

dence, and availability of services for victims, it would be easy to draw

the conclusion that anti-rape activism has been relatively successful.

Requirements as to witnesses and visible harm as grounds for

prosecution have been changed. Marital rape statutes have been

reformed. Hospitals and clinics provide rape exams to victims. Rape

crisis centers exist in almost every jurisdiction in the United States,

and victim advocates are alerted as first responders when a rape is

reported. However,in Up Against the Wall: Rape Reform and the Failure

of Success, Rose Corrigan shows that these reforms have not signifi-

cantly changed the way rape is adjudicated or the manner in which

legal and medical professionals treat victims. According to her

extensive interviews with Rape Crisis advocates, in spite of statutory

reform and social service resources being made available, sexual

assault is still unlikely to be taken seriously and victims are still

unlikely to be treated fairly or with respect. To explain why this is the

case, Corrigan shows how the history of the anti-rape movement

differs from other transformative social justice movements. She also

considers the place and value of feminist perspectives and advocacy

given the contemporary legal terrain with respect to sexual violence.

In general, Corrigan’s work lays out the contemporary terrain that

anti-rape activists must negotiate.

Corrigan uses Michael McCann’s model of legal mobilization to

elucidate the differences between the rape reform movement and

other social movements. She offers insight into the historical emer-

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