The Federal Bureau of Investigation is expanding its definition of rape in its Uniform Crime Report. The report is used to track crime trends across the country, and the expanded definition of rape is meant to better capture the sex crime and other sexual assaults that were previously outside the definition.

The new definition of the sex crime will allow the FBI to collect improved data on the number of rapes committed in Illinois and other states. The FBI's crime report is used by policymakers across the country to prevent and prosecute crime. The FBI's definition of rape will not impact each state's definition of rape nor will it change how local authorities prosecute sex crimes. The change brings the FBI's definition closer to the definition used by many states.

The new definition will replace an 80-year-old definition that excluded men and types of sexual assaults. Under the FBI's old definition rape was, "the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will." The old definition only covered the forcible penetration of a woman's vagina by a penis. The old version did not reflect forcible anal or oral penetration, the rape of a man, the rape of a woman by another woman, or the penetration of the vagina or anus with an object or other body part.

The former definition also did not include nonconsensual sex that does not involve physical force. The rape of someone who was not able to provide consent because the person was drugged or drunk would not have been reflected under the old term.

Under the new definition, rape is the, "penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."

Source: The New York Times, "U.S. to expand its definition of rape in statistics," Charlie Savage, Jan. 6, 2012