ABSTRACT
For six yearsI worked on a rape hotline in Santa Cruz, a small California central-coast town with an activist spirit. Santa Cruz Women Against Rape, the collective that runs the hotline, is known for propagating the idea that direct confrontation of rapists is a way to exert community control over men's behavior. The group prides itself on its political, rather than service, orientation. The rape calls we got were not unusual, from what I know about rape hotlines in the state and the nation. One year, the hotline received six hundred calls, while local police got only seventeen.
