Spanning a period of four tumultuous decades from the mid-1930s through
the mid-1970s, this study reassesses the ways in which Chicagoans
negotiated the extraordinary challenges of rape, as either victims or
accused perpetrators. Drawing on extensive trial testimony, government
reports, and media coverage, Dawn Rae Flood examines how individual men
and women, particularly African Americans, understood and challenged
rape myths and claimed their right to be protected as American
citizens--protected by the State against violence, and protected from
the State's prejudicial investigations and interrogations. Flood shows
how defense strategies, evolving in concert with changes in the broader
cultural and legal environment, challenged assumptions about black
criminality while continuing to deploy racist and sexist stereotypes
against the plaintiffs. Uniquely combining legal studies, medical
history, and personal accounts, Flood pays special attention to how
medical evidence was considered in rape cases and how victim-patients
were treated by hospital personnel. She also analyzes medical testimony
in modern rape trials, tracing the evolution of contemporary "rape kit"
procedures as shaped by legal requirements, trial strategies, feminist
reform efforts, and women's experiences.