HOW TO CONVICT A RAPIST

An uneven mÉlange of material on rape by a former policewoman turned criminal justice educator, who views rape as a crime of violence rather than a ""sex crime"" and classifies rapists as incurable ""hard-core criminals."" Eyman takes this philosophic stance in her first chapter, but its bearing on the rest of the book is limited. Part of this is manifestly a rape victim's guide to the process of criminal prosecution: the mechanics of police investigation; the significance of medical evidence; the progress of a criminal trial; and how to testify. These sections are clear and straightforward, with emphasis on what the rape victim can do to aid the prosecutor. Surprisingly, however, Eyman ignores an issue of major importance to the victim as a potential witness--the extent to which evidence of the victim's own past sexual conduct is admissible at trial (an area of the law recently changed by the federal Rape Victims Privacy Act). The intended readership for other parts of the text is a puzzlement. The chapter on medical evidence contains a Miami hospital's lengthy protocols on rape victim treatment, peripheral in a handbook for victims. The ""Avoiding Rape"" chapter offers only self-evident suggestions (don't hitchhike; walk on well-lighted streets; put only your initial on your mailbox). And among the many appendices which occupy half the book are two--on establishing a police department morals squad and on technical aspects of preserving medical evidence--without any apparent connection to the balance. In the largest of the appendices are case histories of four rapists, apparently to document Eyman's thesis that because rapists are simply bad, not sick, sex offender ""treatment"" does not work. Generally familiar material, thrown together--not much of interest here for the victim or the criminal justice professional.