What Changed When the FBI Redefined Rape in 2013?

The short answer

Starting with the 2013 data year, the FBI counts rape under a wider definition than the one it used before. A state's reported crime rate for 2013 or later and one for 2012 or earlier therefore count different things, and the rape line is not directly comparable across that year.

The two definitions

The FBI's Crime in the United States, 2013 states the change this way: "Previously, offense data for forcible rape was collected under the legacy UCR definition: the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Beginning with the 2013 data year, the term 'forcible' was removed from the offense title, and the definition was changed."

The revised definition reads: "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. Attempts or assaults to commit rape are also included; however, statutory rape and incest are excluded."

In plain words, the older definition was written around one kind of victim and required force. The newer one is worded around penetration and the lack of consent.

What this means for a state figure

On the State Crime Rates tool, a state's violent crime figure is the FBI's estimate of reported violent crime. Rape is one of the offenses added into it. Each state page marks whether a year's rape count uses the legacy or the revised definition, so you can see which side of the line a year falls on.

The FBI itself kept the two apart when it first published the change: "All rape data submitted in 2013—whether collected under the revised definition or the legacy definition—are presented in this publication. However, because only one year of rape data has been collected under the revised definition, the overview presented here discusses only legacy definition rape data."

So the FBI did not treat the first revised-definition year as a continuation of the old series. A reader looking at a state across 2012 and 2013 should not either.

A worked example in words

Take any state's page and look at two years, 2012 and 2014. The arithmetic for each rate is the same as for any agency: estimated offenses ÷ population × 100,000. But the 2012 rape count follows the legacy wording, and the 2014 count follows the revised wording. If the two rape counts differ, the tool cannot tell you how much of the difference is a change in what was reported and how much is a change in what was counted. That is why this guide quotes no state figures: the point is the line, and the line is the same in every state.

What a rate across 2013 leaves out

• How much of a change comes from the wording. The rate cannot separate a change in what was reported from a change in what was counted.
• Which agencies switched when. The FBI notes that submissions in 2013 came in under either definition.
• Anything about crime nobody reported to police. A reported crime rate counts only what reached the police and then the FBI.
• Why a place's rate is what it is. The data does not say why.

What this guide does not cover

It does not cover how the FBI fills gaps when agencies do not report; that is in Why Is My State's Crime Rate an Estimate?. It does not cover the later move to the FBI's newer reporting system, called NIBRS, which is a separate change from the 2013 one.

Use the tool

Open State Crime Rates, pick a state, and read which definition each year's rape count uses before you set two years side by side.

This guide is for informational purposes only and is not professional advice. A reported crime rate describes what one police agency reported to the FBI. It says nothing certain about any one home, street or school.

Last reviewed: October 2026 · Against the sources cited in the body.