The FBI: Defining Away 'Rape'

How would you define a rape? Perhaps as any forcible sexual act involving penetration? Well, the FBI thinks that's a little too broad. Instead, they define rape as "the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will." Historically this has only applied to sexual intercourse in the most basic respect -- not oral, anal, or vaginal rape by an object. This also means that any rape against a male doesn't count for purposes of FBI record keeping.

Why does the FBI’s definition matter? It matters for several reasons, including the fact that this limited definition is standing in the way of an accurate measure of rapes across the country and even, perhaps, affecting how police agencies handle reports of rape by victims in their communities.

This week the Senate crime and drugs subcommittee met with several women's rights organizations, victims’ advocate groups and other interested parties to discuss the problems of under reported rapes. At issue was recent stories of major police agencies downplaying rape rates in their cities and even sweeping cases under the rug. The FBI's definition of "forcible rape" was also discussed, as their Uniform Crime Report has perhaps erroneously indicated a dramatically falling trend in rapes, with numbers declining over 6 percent since 2005.

While the FBI recognizes other acts as a form of sexual assault, rape is the only crime which they classify as a Part I offense in the Uniform Crime Report, an annually published record of crime rates across the country.

Law enforcement agencies nationwide submit data to the FBI for inclusion in the UCR. Despite this report being completely voluntary, there is said to be a 93 percent participation rate. And though there are always shortcomings and margins of error with any system designed to track crime, the UCR is considered the go-to report when politicians, reporters or other officials need to cite crime statistics. Because of this, it would be in the self serving interest of some agencies to show lower crime rates, to reflect that their crime control techniques are really working when they really aren't.

But the police wouldn’t do that -- would they?

Over the past few years, several metropolitan police forces have come under scrutiny for their handling of rape cases. Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Cleveland are just a few cities where law enforcement is alleged to have mishandled or completely ignored reports of rape.

A scathing investigative report from The Baltimore Sun this summer showed that city to have led the country in the number of rape cases where the victims's claims were determined by officers to be unfounded or untruthful. Three in 10 reported cases there were resolved with the rape claims being officially labeled "unfounded," and four in ten 911 calls didn't even result in a police report being taken.

Apparently Baltimore police would like us to think their citizens are less honest than the rest the nation, reporting sexual assaults without justification. Nevermind the shame and difficulty associated with reporting a rape, they want us to believe Baltimoreans don’t have a problem coming forward, they just have a problem with the truth.

Fudging the numbers a little to make certain crimes look like less of an issue is certainly nothing new or out of the ordinary. Take the NYPD's latest scandal showing quotas aren't really a thing of the past. But there must be an accurate picture of crime in order to protect citizens and effectively allocate funds. While the UCR definition of rape may seem like a small matter in the scheme of things, it's not. Recognizing there is a problem and taking steps to correct it is crucial, no matter how small those steps may seem.

Greg Scarbro from the FBI told CNN the bureau is not opposed to changing the near century old rape definition. Let's challenge them to do just that. Join other activists at Change.org in calling on the FBI to change their definition of “forcible rape.” By encouraging police to include more accurate counts of rape victims, they are showing the importance of taking claims of sexual assault seriously.

Photo Credit: Nigsby