I have been privileged enough to receive an advance copy of The Guilt Project: Rape, Morality, and Law by Vanessa Place. I know Vanessa through graduate school, and also through her amazing work with Les Figues press (for which she is a co-founder). She is a writer and criminal appellate attorney, and more than that, she takes on the cases very few would have the courage defend: sex offenders and sexually violent predators.
The Guilt Project is an unflinching - and in this cultural climate, incredibly brave - examination of legal, constitutional, ethical, moral, and practical questions surrounding how the United States defines, punishes, treats, monitors, and "manages" sex offenders. In the coming days and weeks, I will post some responses to her thought provoking chapters. It being the first week of the two classes I teach, I have been occupied getting students acclimated to the classroom, though I have been thinking a great deal about Vanessa's book. Stay tuned.
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