In 2023, the rate of forcible rapes in the United States stood at 38 per 100,000 inhabitants. As the FBI revised the definition of rape in 2013, the 2023 rate is a slight decrease from 1990, when there were 41.2 forcible rapes per 100,000 inhabitants. What is forcible rape? According to the FBI, forcible rape is defined as “sexual penetration, no matter how slight, with a body part or object without the consent of the victim.” This definition changed in 2013 from the previous definition, which specified “carnal knowledge of a female victim forcibly and against her will.” Attempted rape was included in the previous definition, but statutory rape and other sexual offenses were excluded. The old definition was seen as problematic, as people of any gender can be raped. Since the revision of the definition of rape, reported rapes increased, although it is not clear if this is due to the revised definition or if the rate itself has increased. Rape in the United States While rape and sexual assault have been extensively talked about in the U.S. in recent years, especially since the start of the #metoo movement, there is still a large number of sexual offences committed each year. Sadly, the majority of sex offences in the U.S. are carried out against individuals age 20 and under. Astoundingly, the Anchorage, Alaska metropolitan area had the highest rape rate in the United States in 2023, followed by St Joseph in Missouri and Kansas. Since rape and sexual assault continue to be underreported in the United States, it is important to find a solution to this devastating problem.
In 2023, ******* women were victims of rape or sexual assault in the United States, while the corresponding number of men who were raped or sexually assaulted in that year was *******.
In the United States, significantly more women than men are sexually assaulted. In 2023, about ******* women were raped or sexually assaulted in the U.S. - a decrease from the previous year. In comparison, ******* men were raped or sexually assaulted in 2023, which was an increase compared to the year before.
This is an Official Statistics bulletin produced by statisticians in the Ministry of Justice, Home Office and the Office for National Statistics. It brings together, for the first time, a range of official statistics from across the crime and criminal justice system, providing an overview of sexual offending in England and Wales. The report is structured to highlight: the victim experience; the police role in recording and detecting the crimes; how the various criminal justice agencies deal with an offender once identified; and the criminal histories of sex offenders.
Providing such an overview presents a number of challenges, not least that the available information comes from different sources that do not necessarily cover the same period, the same people (victims or offenders) or the same offences. This is explained further in the report.
Based on aggregated data from the ‘Crime Survey for England and Wales’ in 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12, on average, 2.5 per cent of females and 0.4 per cent of males said that they had been a victim of a sexual offence (including attempts) in the previous 12 months. This represents around 473,000 adults being victims of sexual offences (around 404,000 females and 72,000 males) on average per year. These experiences span the full spectrum of sexual offences, ranging from the most serious offences of rape and sexual assault, to other sexual offences like indecent exposure and unwanted touching. The vast majority of incidents reported by respondents to the survey fell into the other sexual offences category.
It is estimated that 0.5 per cent of females report being a victim of the most serious offences of rape or sexual assault by penetration in the previous 12 months, equivalent to around 85,000 victims on average per year. Among males, less than 0.1 per cent (around 12,000) report being a victim of the same types of offences in the previous 12 months.
Around one in twenty females (aged 16 to 59) reported being a victim of a most serious sexual offence since the age of 16. Extending this to include other sexual offences such as sexual threats, unwanted touching or indecent exposure, this increased to one in five females reporting being a victim since the age of 16.
Around 90 per cent of victims of the most serious sexual offences in the previous year knew the perpetrator, compared with less than half for other sexual offences.
Females who had reported being victims of the most serious sexual offences in the last year were asked, regarding the most recent incident, whether or not they had reported the incident to the police. Only 15 per cent of victims of such offences said that they had done so. Frequently cited reasons for not reporting the crime were that it was ‘embarrassing’, they ‘didn’t think the police could do much to help’, that the incident was ‘too trivial or not worth reporting’, or that they saw it as a ‘private/family matter and not police business’
In 2011/12, the police recorded a total of 53,700 sexual offences across England and Wales. The most serious sexual offences of ‘rape’ (16,000 offences) and ‘sexual assault’ (22,100 offences) accounted for 71 per cent of sexual offences recorded by the police. This differs markedly from victims responding to the CSEW in 2011/12, the majority of whom were reporting being victims of other sexual offences outside the most serious category.
This reflects the fact that victims are more likely to report the most serious sexual offences to the police and, as such, the police and broader criminal justice system (CJS) tend to deal largely with the most serious end of the spectrum of sexual offending. The majority of the other sexual crimes recorded by the police related to ‘exposure or voyeurism’ (7,000) and ‘sexual activity with minors’ (5,800).
Trends in recorded crime statistics can be influenced by whether victims feel able to and decide to report such offences to the police, and by changes in police recording practices. For example, while there was a 17 per cent decrease in recorded sexual offences between 2005/06 and 2008/09, there was a seven per cent increase between 2008/09 and 2010/11. The latter increase may in part be due to greater encouragement by the police to victims to come forward and improvements in police recording, rather than an increase in the level of victimisation.
After the initial recording of a crime, the police may later decide that no crime took place as more details about the case emerge. In 2011/12, there were 4,155 offences initially recorded as sexual offences that the police later decided were not crimes. There are strict guidelines that set out circumstances under which a crime report may be ‘no crimed’. The ‘no-crime’ rate for sexual offences (7.2 per cent) compare
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Nature of sexual assault by rape or penetration experienced by adults since the age of 16 years, including breakdowns by age, sex, victim-perpetrator relationship, location and other factors. Analyses from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).
In 2023, Texas had the highest number of forcible rape cases in the United States, with 15,097 reported rapes. Delaware had the lowest number of reported forcible rape cases at 194. Number vs. rate It is perhaps unsurprising that Texas and California reported the highest number of rapes, as these states have the highest population of states in the U.S. When looking at the rape rate, or the number of rapes per 100,000 of the population, a very different picture is painted: Alaska was the state with the highest rape rate in the country in 2023, with California ranking as 30th in the nation. The prevalence of rape Rape and sexual assault are notorious for being underreported crimes, which means that the prevalence of sex crimes is likely much higher than what is reported. Additionally, more than a third of women worry about being sexually assaulted, and most sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone the victim knew.
This dataset reflects reported incidents of crime that have occurred in the City of Chicago over the past year, minus the most recent seven days of data. Data is extracted from the Chicago Police Department's CLEAR (Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting) system. In order to protect the privacy of crime victims, addresses are shown at the block level only and specific locations are not identified. Should you have questions about this dataset, you may contact the Research & Development Division of the Chicago Police Department at 312.745.6071 or RandD@chicagopolice.org. Disclaimer: These crimes may be based upon preliminary information supplied to the Police Department by the reporting parties that have not been verified. The preliminary crime classifications may be changed at a later date based upon additional investigation and there is always the possibility of mechanical or human error. Therefore, the Chicago Police Department does not guarantee (either expressed or implied) the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or correct sequencing of the information and the information should not be used for comparison purposes over time. The Chicago Police Department will not be responsible for any error or omission, or for the use of, or the results obtained from the use of this information. All data visualizations on maps should be considered approximate and attempts to derive specific addresses are strictly prohibited.
The Chicago Police Department is not responsible for the content of any off-site pages that are referenced by or that reference this web page other than an official City of Chicago or Chicago Police Department web page. The user specifically acknowledges that the Chicago Police Department is not responsible for any defamatory, offensive, misleading, or illegal conduct of other users, links, or third parties and that the risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with the user. Any use of the information for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited. The unauthorized use of the words "Chicago Police Department," "Chicago Police," or any colorable imitation of these words or the unauthorized use of the Chicago Police Department logo is unlawful. This web page does not, in any way, authorize such use. Data is updated daily.
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The dataset contains year-, state-, type-of-crime- and gender-wise compiled data on the number of different types of crimes which were committed against children and the number of victims who were affected by the same crimes. The different types of crimes covered in the dataset include kidnapping and abduction crimes such as kidanapping and abduction for the purpose of murder, begging, ransom, compelling for marriage, procuration of minor girls, importation of girls from foreign countries, missing deemed as kidnapped, etc., fatal crimes such as murder, attempt to commit murder, muder with rape, abetment of suicide of child, infanticide, foeticide, trafficking and sexual crimes such buying and selling of minors for prostitution, use of children for pornography, transmiting sexual content and material involving children in sexually explicit acts, sexual assualt, penetrative sexual assault, rape, and other crimes such as child labour, child marriage, exposure, abandaonment, simple hurt, grievous hurt, insult and assualt of damage modesty, crimes under juvenile justice act and transplantation of organs act, etc.
The dataset also categorizes the above crimes by the pertinent legislations and their specific secitons against which the crimes have been committed against children.
Note: The rate of crimes in the dataset refers to number of crimes committed against Children by projected population of children in Lakhs
Despite the fact that most states enacted rape reform legislation by the mid-1980s, empirical research on the effect of these laws was conducted in only four states and for a limited time span following the reform. The purpose of this study was to provide both increased breadth and depth of information about the effect of the rape law changes and the legal issues that surround them. Statistical data on all rape cases between 1970 and 1985 in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, were collected from court records. Monthly time-series analyses were used to assess the impact of the reforms on rape reporting, indictments, convictions, incarcerations, and sentences. The study also sought to determine if particular changes, or particular combinations of changes, affected the case processing and disposition of sexual assault cases and whether the effect of the reforms varied with the comprehensiveness of the changes. In each jurisdiction, data were collected on all forcible rape cases for which an indictment or information was filed. In addition to forcible rape, other felony sexual assaults that did not involve children were included. The names and definitions of these crimes varied from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. To compare the pattern of rape reports with general crime trends, reports of robbery and felony assaults during the same general time period were also obtained from the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) from the Federal Bureau of Investigation when available. For the adjudicated case data (Parts 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11), variables include month and year of offense, indictment, disposition, four most serious offenses charged, total number of charges indicted, four most serious conviction charges, total number of conviction charges, type of disposition, type of sentence, and maximum jail or prison sentence. The time series data (Parts 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12) provide year and month of indictment, total indictments for rape only and for all sex offenses, total convictions and incarcerations for all rape cases in the month, for those on the original rape charge, for all sex offenses in the month, and for those on the original sex offense charge, percents for each indictment, conviction, and incarceration category, the average maximum sentence for each incarceration category, and total police reports of forcible rape in the month. Interviews were also conducted in each site with judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, and this information is presented in Part 13. These interviewees were asked to rate the importance of various types of evidence in sexual assault cases and to respond to a series of six hypothetical cases in which evidence of the victim's past sexual history was at issue. Respondents were also presented with a hypothetical case for which some factors were varied to create 12 different scenarios, and they were asked to make a set of judgments about each. Interview data also include respondent's title, sex, race, age, number of years in office, and whether the respondent was in office before and/or after the reform.
The number of rape and sexual assault cases reported to the police in Germany peaked at ****** in 2024 during the period shown here. Previously, the highest number of cases, ******, had been recorded the year before. Based on the definition in criminal law, sexual assault includes rape, as well as other sexually driven physical attacks. Rape is defined as forcing a person to have sex. Increased crime clearance rate The question remains how high the number of unreported cases is. Reasons for not reporting a sexual assault vary among victims. In recent years, the German police reported increasing clearance rates for sexual crimes. In 2022, **** percent of rape and sexual assault cases were solved, compared to **** percent in 2016. In 2023, however this figure dropped to **** percent, perhaps due to the increase in the number of cases. Among males suspected of committing such crimes, over ** percent were young adults aged 18 to 21 years. Types of German police forces German police forces are divided into several different types, which all have clearly established tasks regulated by law. The Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA) is often compared to the FBI in the U.S. and investigates federal crimes, such as kidnapping. The Federal Police (Bundespolizei), works in railway stations, at airports, and seaports. They also protect borders, government buildings, and deal with organized crime and terrorism. The criminal police (Kriminalpolizei, Kripo), the only policemen not wearing in uniform in Germany, handle assault, murder, and rape cases, as well as theft. The uniformed police (Schutzpolizei, SchuPo), or beat police, are regularly visible in streets, as they are responsible for traffic safety, among other tasks, and may be approached directly by people in need of assistance or help.
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Sexual offence numbers, prevalence and victim characteristics, including breakdowns by type of incident, sex, victim-perpetrator relationship and location based upon findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales and police recorded crime.
These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed. Serial sexual assault is a pervasive problem: court record recidivism rates show that 10-15% of convicted sex offenders re-assault within five years and self-report studies suggest that 63-78% of males who have committed sexual assaults have raped more than one individual. The current study documents the scope of repeat sexual offending through a previously-unexplored method of documenting serial perpetration: DNA evidence in sexual assault kits (SAKs). Ultimately, the testing of N = 7,287 previously untested SAKs revealed n = 1,270 unique and identifiable perpetrators. When combined with information from lifetime criminal history records, 39.7% (n = 504) of this subsample of unique and identifiable perpetrators were found to be serial sexual offenders who committed, on average, 3.27 sexual assaults. This collection contains 10 SPSS files: ESCALATIONdata_2018-05-15.sav (1142 cases, 6 variables) Forensic_Outcomes_2018-04-03.sav (7287 cases, 7 variables) PERPdata_2018-04-03.sav (1424 cases, 12 variables) SAKdata_2018-04-03.sav (1675 cases, 6 variables) SAK_PERP_2018-04-03.sav (1691 cases, 12 variables) SSA_ARR_Arrests_Imputed_2018-09-03.sav (9826 cases, 24 variables) SSA_CHG_PA_Charges_Imputed_2018-09-03.sav (6052 cases, 24 variables) SSA_IDN_Offenders_2018-09-03.sav (1142 cases, 17 variables) SSA_INC_Incidents_Imputed_2018-09-03.sav (9550 cases, 16 variables) SSA_JUD_Judicial_Charges_Imputed_2018-09-03.sav (12522 cases, 30 variables) This collection includes demographic variables on offenders, including sex, race, age, and arrest region.
This dataset includes all valid felony, misdemeanor, and violation crimes reported to the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for all complete quarters so far this year (2016). For additional details, please see the attached data dictionary in the ‘About’ section.
These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigators if further information is needed. This study conducted a retrospective analysis of how child sexual abuse cases referred for prosecution in several counties in one New England state over a five year period (2009-2013) progressed through the system. In particular, the study focused on the distribution of the cases' outcomes and factors associated with these outcomes. The collection contains eight SPSS data files: D1_General-Case-Details.sav (n=500; 103 variables) D2_Background-Checks.sav (n=614; 9 variables) D3_Trial-Information.sav (n=89; 123 variables) D4_First-Victim-Details.sav (n=500; 289 variables) D5_Add-Victim-Details.sav (n=54; 289 variables) D6_First-Perp-Details.sav (n=500; 62 variables) D7_Add-Perp-Details.sav (n=60; 62 variables) D8_Medical-Information.sav (n=97; 35 variables) Demographic variables include age, birth date (month and year), gender, race, ethnicity, living arrangements, number of siblings, immigration status and ability to speak English.
Rape offences have increased dramatically in England and Wales since 2012/13, when there were just over 16,000 offences. After this year, rape offences increased substantially, reaching a peak of 71,667 in 2024/25, the most recent reporting year. When 2024/25 is compared with 2002/03, there has been an almost sixfold increase in the number of rape offences recorded by the police in England and Wales. Similar patterns in Scotland and Northern Ireland While there has also been an increase in the number of rape and attempted rape offences in Scotland, the increase has not been quite as steep, with offences reaching 2,897 in 2022/23 compared with 924 in 2002/03. In Northern Ireland there has been a sharp rise in overall sexual offences, rising from 1,438 in 2002/03, to 4,090 by 2023/24. This rise in overall sexual offences is also observable in Scotland, with 14,892 offences in 2024/25, compared with 6,623 in 2002/03. Explaining the increase Although overall crime has shown a noticeable uptick recently, the rise in sexual offences has been much more pronounced. Rather than falling in the mid-2010s and then rising again towards the end of the decade, like overall crime, sexual offences remained at a relatively stable figure, until 2013/14 when it increased dramatically, a pattern mirrored in both Scotland and Northern Ireland. This is possibly due to better reporting practices by the police as well as an increasing willingness of victims to come forward, including historic victims of sexual violence.
In 2023, about ******* women in the United States were raped or sexually assaulted by well-known or casual acquaintances. For men, this number was significantly lower, with ****** men being raped or sexually assaulted by well-known or casual acquaintances in that year.
Over 150,000 sexual offences were recorded by police in year ending March 2020 (ONS, 2020), and there are indications that the Covid-19 lockdown increased some sexual offences (e.g. online -facilitated abuse, or sexual abuse perpetrated by family members) and decreased others (e.g. assaults by strangers/peers). However, there has been no research into the specific effects of Covid-19 on criminal justice system (CJS) policies and practices relating to sexual offences, nor on the journeys of survivors through the CJS during this period. Prior to the pandemic, there were significant challenges for the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences and conviction rates were extremely low. Some of these challenges may well have been exacerbated by Covid-19 and lockdown e.g. further delays to investigating cases, postponement of Achieving Best Evidence interviews. At the same time, however, Covid-19 has generated significant innovation within the CJS, e.g. the introduction of a video platform within the courts enabling all parties in a criminal hearing to engage securely and remotely, and this may sow the seeds for improvement in survivors’ journeys through the CJS. Drawing on the perspectives and experiences of CJS stakeholders, including complainants and families, police, Crown Prosecution Service, HM Courts and Tribunals Services, the Judiciary, Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs), and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors, this project provide unique insights into the impact of the pandemic on the CJS in sexual offence cases. The data shared here is based on 72 interviews conducted with survivors/family members, and professionals from the police, SARCs and the third sector. The findings identify how the pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges, posed new difficulties, and provoked innovations that could improve the experiences of victims and survivors of sexual violence and abuse.Over 150,000 sexual offences were recorded by the police in the year ending March 2020 (ONS, 2020), and there are indications that lockdown increased some sexual offences (e.g. online-facilitated abuse, sexual abuse perpetrated by family members) and decreased others (e.g. assaults by strangers/peers). However, there has been no research into the specific effects of Covid-19 on criminal justice system (CJS) policies and practices relating to sexual offences, nor on the journeys of survivors through the CJS during this period. Prior to the pandemic, there were significant challenges for the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences and conviction rates were extremely low. Some of these challenges may well have been exacerbated by Covid-19 and lockdown e.g. further delays to investigating cases, postponement of Achieving Best Evidence interviews. At the same time, however, Covid-19 has generated significant innovation within the CJS e.g. the introduction of a video platform within the courts enabling all parties in a criminal hearing to engage securely and remotely, and this may sow the seeds for improvement in survivors' journeys through the CJS. Drawing on the perspectives and experiences of CJS stakeholders, including complainants and families, police, Crown Prosecution Service, HM Courts and Tribunals Services, the Judiciary, Sexual Assault Referral Centres, and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors, this research will provide unique insights into the impact of the pandemic on the CJS in sexual offence cases. Changes to procedures precipitated by Covid-19 might offer longer-term benefits for survivors and stakeholders and we aim to identify these and promote their implementation. We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with survivors and their families, as well as with practitioners representing key Criminal Justice System stakeholder groups from a range of geographical locations across England and Wales between May 2021 and May 2022. We focused on their experiences since the first lockdown came into force on the 23rd March 2020, and captured the evolution in practices that occurred, including during the winter lockdowns. Individuals were approached through a range of avenues, including via our partners and advisory group members, existing links with survivor and professional organisations and networks, and social media.
The overarching aim of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (RASASF) is to provide holistic, trauma-informed, survivor-led support to victims-survivors who have experienced rape or sexual abuse at any point in their lives, regardless of where they live in England and Wales or whether they report the crime to the police. This means providing support that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of victims-survivors of rape and sexual abuse - to help them to cope, build resilience, and move forward with their lives. Recommissioning this fund for 2023 to 2025 is a Rape Review commitment.
This document sets out which organisations have been successful in the competition for funding, and the amount they have been awarded.
These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed. The study contains data on sexual assault cases reported to the police for the years 2006-2012, collected from six police agencies and also their corresponding public prosecutor's offices across the United States. The study analyzed the attrition of sexual assault cases from the criminal justice system. This study includes two SPSS data files: Court-Form-2008-2010-Sample-Revised-Nov-2018.sav (801 variables, 417 cases) Police-Form-2008-2010-Sample-Revised-Nov-2018.sav (1,276 variables, 3,269 cases) This study also includes two SPSS syntax files: ICPSR-Court-Form-Variable-Construction-2008-2010.sps ICPSR-Constructed-Variables-Syntax.sps The study also contains qualitative data which are not available as part of this data collection at this time. The qualitative data includes interviews, field observations, and focus groups which were conducted with key personnel to examine organizational and cultural dimensions of handling sexual assault cases in order to understand how these factors influence case outcomes.
https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/studies/8162/termshttps://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/ICPSR/studies/8162/terms
This survey was conducted by the Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research at Northwestern University to gather information for two projects that analyzed the impact of crime on the lives of city dwellers. These projects were the Reactions to Crime (RTC) Project, which was supported by the United States Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice as part of its Research Agreements Program, and the Rape Project, supported by the National Center for the Prevention and Control of Rape, a subdivision of the National Institute of Mental Health. Both investigations were concerned with individual behavior and collective reactions to crime. The Rape Project was specifically concerned with sexual assault and its consequences for the lives of women. The three cities selected for study were Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. A total of ten neighborhoods were chosen from these cities along a number of dimensions -- ethnicity, class, crime, and levels of organizational activity. In addition, a small city-wide sample was drawn from each city. Reactions to crime topics covered how individuals band together to deal with crime problems, individual responses to crime such as property marking or the installation of locks and bars, and the impact of fear of crime on day-to-day behavior -- for example, shopping and recreational patterns. Respondents were asked several questions that called for self-reports of behavior, including events and conditions in their home areas, their relationship to their neighbors, who they knew and visited around their homes, and what they watched on TV and read in the newspapers. Also included were a number of questions measuring respondents' perceptions of the extent of crime in their communities, whether they knew someone who had been a victim, and what they had done to reduce their own chances of being victimized. Questions on sexual assault/rape included whether the respondent thought this was a neighborhood problem, if the number of rapes in the neighborhood were increasing or decreasing, how many women they thought had been sexually assaulted or raped in the neighborhood in the previous year, and how they felt about various rape prevention measures, such as increasing home security, women not going out alone at night, women dressing more modestly, learning self-defense techniques, carrying weapons, increasing men's respect of women, and newspapers publishing the names of known rapists. Female respondents were asked whether they thought it likely that they would be sexually assaulted in the next year, how much they feared sexual assault when going out alone after dark in the neighborhood, whether they knew a sexual assault victim, whether they had reported any sexual assaults to police, and where and when sexual assaults took place that they were aware of. Demographic information collected on respondents includes age, race, ethnicity, education, occupation, income, and whether the respondent owned or rented their home.
In 2023, the rate of forcible rapes in the United States stood at 38 per 100,000 inhabitants. As the FBI revised the definition of rape in 2013, the 2023 rate is a slight decrease from 1990, when there were 41.2 forcible rapes per 100,000 inhabitants. What is forcible rape? According to the FBI, forcible rape is defined as “sexual penetration, no matter how slight, with a body part or object without the consent of the victim.” This definition changed in 2013 from the previous definition, which specified “carnal knowledge of a female victim forcibly and against her will.” Attempted rape was included in the previous definition, but statutory rape and other sexual offenses were excluded. The old definition was seen as problematic, as people of any gender can be raped. Since the revision of the definition of rape, reported rapes increased, although it is not clear if this is due to the revised definition or if the rate itself has increased. Rape in the United States While rape and sexual assault have been extensively talked about in the U.S. in recent years, especially since the start of the #metoo movement, there is still a large number of sexual offences committed each year. Sadly, the majority of sex offences in the U.S. are carried out against individuals age 20 and under. Astoundingly, the Anchorage, Alaska metropolitan area had the highest rape rate in the United States in 2023, followed by St Joseph in Missouri and Kansas. Since rape and sexual assault continue to be underreported in the United States, it is important to find a solution to this devastating problem.