The Los Angeles Times over the past weekend reported that “the FBI was moving to change the federal definition of rape for the first time in 80 years, which authorities and women's advocacy groups hope will lead to improved tracking of such crimes and an attitude shift among investigators.”
The New York Times first reported on Thursday the potential for change after police chiefs, sex crime investigators, federal officials and advocates convened in Washington to discuss the limitations of the federal definition and the wider issue of local police departments not adequately investigating rapes.
“Critics,” the L.A.Times article related, “have maintained that the current definition – which since 1927 has been defined as forcible male penile penetration of a female and excludes cases involving oral and anal penetration, cases in which the victims were drugged or under the influence of alcohol, and male victims -- is archaic, too narrow, and leaves crimes uncounted in police statistics, resulting in fewer resources for victims and law enforcement.,”
The New Republic also had a recent article which referenced a 2007 study funded by the Department of Justice which suggested the current definition has distorted FBI statistics and that they are very misleading indeed. The study notes that rape prevention and intervention services, as well as federal policy, cannot be truly effective without an accurate picture of the incidence of the crime.
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