© unknownJoe Biden
The new definition will increase the number of people counted as rape victims in FBI statistics, but will neither change federal or state laws nor alter charges or prosecutions.
The expansion was long awaited because policymakers and lawmakers use crime statistics to allocate resources for prevention and victim assistance.
The issue got top-level White House attention starting last July, when Vice President Joe Biden raised it at a cabinet meeting.
Biden, author of the Violence Against Women Act when he was in the Senate, said the new definition is a victory for women and men "whose suffering has gone unaccounted for over 80 years." Calling rape a "devastating crime," the vice president said, "We can't solve it unless we know the full extent of it."
Since 1929, the FBI has defined rape as the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will. The revised definition covers any gender of victim or attacker and includes instances in which the victim is incapable of giving consent because of the influence of drugs or alcohol or because of age. Physical resistance is not required. The Justice Department said the new definition mirrors the majority of state rape statutes now on the books.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said all rape victims "should have access to the comprehensive services that will help them rebuild their lives."
In November, Leahy introduced legislation to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and put an increased emphasis on efforts to stop sexual assault.
Using the old definition, 84,767 rapes were reported nationwide in 2010, according to the FBI's uniform crime report based on data from 18,000 law enforcement agencies.
Nearly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the U.S. have been raped at some time in their lives, according to a 2010 survey by the National Center for Injury Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used a broader definition.
Source: The Associated Press
Men and boys have suffered this just as long and as often as women have. No one deserves to be ignored or abandoned through that kind of trauma.