Sexuality, Women, and LGBT Concerns

We did it! FBI Director Robert Mueller gave final approval to update the archaic definition of rape.

We did it thanks to you and the more than 160,000 emails we sent requesting a change in the way the FBI Uniform Crime Report defines rape.

With a modern, broader definition, FBI statistics will finally show the true breadth of this violence that affects so many women’s lives. Women’s groups will work to ensure that this more accurate and complete data will lead to increased resources to combat and reduce the incidence of rape.

The old definition, adopted over 80 years ago, had been extensively criticized for leading to widespread underreporting of rape. Defined as “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will,” it excluded rapes involving forced anal sex and/or oral sex, rape with an object (even if serious injuries resulted) and rapes of men, and was interpreted by many police jurisdictions to exclude rapes where the victim was incapacitated by drugs or alcohol, or otherwise unable to give consent. The old rape definition excluded many rapes against women and all against men.

The new definition, as it appears on the FBI website, is: “Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

This is a major policy change and will dramatically impact the way rape is tracked and reported nationwide. Thank you for your continued support throughout this campaign. Please take a minute to thank Director Mueller and the FBI, who finally changed the archaic definition of rape. Together, we are helping to make sure that all rapes will be counted.

For women’s lives,