Thousands of sexual assaults that occur in the United States every year are not reflected in the federal government's yearly crime report because the report uses an archaic definition of rape that is far narrower than the definitions used by most police departments.


Rape crisis centers are among groups that cite the federal figures in applying for private and public financing. "The public has the right to know about the prevalence of crime and violent crime in our communities, and we know that data drives practices, resources, policies and programs," said Carol Tracy, executive director of the Women's Law Project in Philadelphia, whose office has campaigned to get the FBI to change its definition of sexual assault. "It's critical that we strive to have accurate information about this."


According to the 2010 Uniform Crime Report, released by the FBI last week, there were 84,767 sexual assaults in the United States last year, a 5 percent drop from 2009.

The definition of rape used by the FBI -- "the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will" was written more than 80 years ago. The yearly report on violent crime, which uses data provided voluntarily by the nation's 18,000 law enforcement agencies, is widely cited as an indicator of national crime trends.



"The data that are reported to the public come from this definition, and sadly, it portrays a very, very distorted picture," said Susan B. Carbon, director of the Office on Violence Against Women, part of the Department of Justice.