When is a rape not a rape? When the FBI says so.

This week the New York Times reported that the definition of rape that the Federal Bureau of Investigation uses to produce the Uniform Crime Report is so limited that it actually suppresses the number of rapes that are officially reported in the United States. In fact, when law enforcement agencies submit their figures to the feds, the FBI routinely excludes a large number of these assaults from the final national count.

Each year thousands of cases of reported rape are simply not recorded as rape. And they just disappear from the statistics.

(You can find the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/us/federal-rules-on-rape-statistics-criticized.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all )

The definition that the F.B.I. uses to define rape (“the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will”) was written more than 80 years ago! Times have changed. Our sensibilities and awareness have changed. And the tactics of the perpetrators have changed. And it’s time for this definition to change as well.

Problems with this definition: This definition of rape (“the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will”) leaves out anything other than a man aggressively forcing his penis into a woman’s vagina. But there are many, many other ways to hurt someone sexually. Ways that most of us (including many law enforcement agencies) tend to think of as rape. But the FBI doesn’t agree.

The FBI definition of rape excludes anal sex without consent. According to the FBI, if a man inserts his penis into your anus against your will, that is not rape.

The FBI definition excludes oral sex without consent. According to the FBI, if a man forces you to fellate him, or forcibly performs oral sex on you, that is not rape.

The FBI definition excludes the insertion of objects into the body without consent. According to the FBI, if a man shoves a foreign object into your body without your consent, that is not rape.

The FBI definition excludes the use of date rape drugs. According to the FBI, if a man spikes your drink with a “roofie” or any other kind of date rape drug, and then has sex with you in your incapacitated state, that is not rape.

The FBI definition excludes the use of alcohol. According to the FBI, if a man gets you drunk and then forces sex upon you in your intoxicated state, that is not rape.

The FBI definition excludes males as victims. If you are a man, and another man (or a woman, for that matter) forces sex upon you, according to the FBI, that is not rape.

The numbers lie. Because of this antiquated idea of what a rape is, the national numbers of rapes in the USA are inaccurate. For example, because the definition that the city of Chicago uses involves a more comprehensive conceptualization of what comprises a rape, and because the feds can’t [won’t] accommodate it, the figures from that entire city have long been going unreported in the federal figures. And in one recent year the NYPD reported nearly 1,400 rapes to the feds. But of those assaults, only about one thousand were considered by the FBI to meet their definition of rape.

These other assaults just disappeared.

According to the Times article, there is increasing pressure to expand the FBI definition of rape so that their figures more closely match reality. In one week’s time there is supposed to be an FBI subcommittee meeting about this issue. Here’s to hoping they leave that meeting with something useful. And rather than reinvent the wheel, perhaps they should look across their northern border to Canada, which already has a much better way of handling sexual violence.

In Canada, all forms of sexually abusive behavior (including, but not limited to, rape) can be dealt with criminally (and reported to the feds) regardless of whether or not a man aggressively forced his penis into a woman’s vagina. The Canadian definition of sexual assault includes the understanding that sexually abusive acts are all aggressive behaviours – regardless of the specific form they take. They are assaultive by their very nature. So, in Canada, rather than talking about rape specifically, the criminal code divides sexual assault into 3 levels:

Sexual assault level 1: An assault committed in circumstances of a sexual nature such that the sexual integrity of the victim is violated. Level 1 involves minor physical injuries or no injuries to the victim.

Sexual assault level 2: Sexual assault with a weapon, threats, or causing bodily harm.

Aggravated sexual assault (level 3): Sexual assault that results in wounding, maiming, disfiguring or endangering the life of the victim.

This definition isn’t perfect. And we can certainly argue about whether an assault with a weapon is somehow “worse” than an assault that occurs without a weapon. But this Canadian definition does include all of those things that the FBI reporting system leaves out. It’s a start.

And it’s a start the Canadians made way back in 1983.

Perhaps someone should tell the FBI.