By Emily Mathis
In October, I wrote about how the FBI’s rape definition was out of date and needed revising. Well as of a couple of days ago there was some voting about what to do with the definition and there was a unanimous vote to change it. This unanimous vote comes after the Rape is Rape campaign that got 160,000 emails sent to the FBI protesting the current rape definition.
The voices of the campaign were heard and there have been some major victories towards revision of the outdated definition, which reads: “carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.” Now the updated but yet-to-be-approved definition says rape is: “penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” This new definition takes out the word forcible and that the victim has to be a woman.
While this new definition is a step in the right direction to getting all rapes counted for there is still one more step. The final step is getting FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Eric Holder to update the current definition. Go here to sign the petition on Change.org.