One night, anthropologist Cathy Winkler awoke from a deep sleep to discover a rapist standing by her bed. For the rest of that night, she lived a woman's worst nightmare as she was repeatedly raped and beaten by the stranger. The event changed her life into something resembling a Kafka novel: a justice system that bungled the case then blamed the victim, a social service system that provided no services or comfort, uneasy and awkward friends, exploitative media, and insensitive university administrators and colleagues. The pain of those four hours was dwarfed by the frustration of her decade-long fight to find the rapist and bring him to justice, ultimately through one of the first successful uses of DNA evidence in a rape case. Winkler, a brilliant observer and ethnographer, chronicles this struggle here-including her own growing awareness of her power to stare down district attorneys, to use the media to her own ends (including segments on 48 Hours and Court TV), and, ultimately through her persistence, to put the rapist behind bars for life. As a story of triumph over adversity, One Night is an inspirational work. And it provides a model of how researchers can turn the lens inward and incisively examine ourselves and our own world.

By Cathy Winkler

Part 1 Raped Once, Physical Rape
Chapter 1 Another Rape Saga
Part 2 Raped Twice, Social Rape
Chapter 2 Rape as Social Murder
Chapter 3 Traumatized Evidence
Part 3 Raped a Third Time, Legal Rape
Chapter 4 Chasing the Rapist
Chapter 5 It Was Just One Night
Chapter 9 Treating Trauma
Chapter 10 Confronting Institutional Barriers
Chapter 11 Judging Civil Justice
Chapter 13 Looking for Justice
Chapter 14 Confronting Status, not Justice
Chapter 15 Publicizing the Pain
Chapter 16 Judging Criminal Justice
17 Epilogue: Raped Three Times