Source: Raw Story
By Kase Wickman
The Federal Bureau of Investigation currently defines rape the same way it has for the last 80 years: “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will." After continued activist pressure, the FBI is considering rewriting that definition to better reflect that actual number of sexual assaults that occur every day, the New York Times reported.
An FBI subcommittee will talk about the issue at a subcommittee meeting on October 18, according to Greg Scarbro. Scarbro is in charge of the FBI's Uniformed Crime Report, which tracks, among other statistics, reported sexual assaults. According to the 2010 report, released last week, there were 84,767 sexual assaults in the U.S., a 5 percent drop from the 2009 report.
Activists said that the definition of rape led to a misleading message to those who rely on the numbers from the report.
“The data that are reported to the public come from this definition, and sadly, it portrays a very, very distorted picture,” Susan B. Carbon, director of the Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, told the Times. “It’s the message that we’re sending to victims, and if you don’t fit that very narrow definition, you weren’t a victim and your rape didn’t count.”
More at:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/29/fbi-to-update-80-year-old-women-only-rape-definition/_______________________________________________________________________________________________
It's about time...
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