UK: CSEW doesn’t count all sexual offences

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), formerly known as the British Crime Survey (BCS), is a face-to-face victimization survey first conducted in 1982. Here is a bulletin describing what the Ministry of Justice, Home Office and the Office for National Statistics says about what sexual offences the CSEW captures:

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.

Unfortunately that is a lie and this blog post will explain in some detail why this is a lie and what sexual offence is left out.

FBI Clarifies Definition Of Rape

This post was also blogged on Feminist Critics.

 

In 2011, the FBI approved a new definition of rape which was effective beginning in January 2013. Here it 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.

There was a bit of discussion when it was published as to whether it covered rape by envelopment. It’s written pretty ambiguously and the use of the word ‘penetration’ made many think that it didn’t include rape by envelopment. I have earlier argued for assuming in discussions that it includes rape by envelopment, but I quickly became disillusioned when it became clear that other governmental agencies like the CDC and the National Research Council excluded rape by envelopment from their definitions of rape.

I am happy to tell that Ms. Mary P. Reese, from the FBI’s CJIS Division’s Crime Statistics Management Unit confirms in an email that they consider rape by envelopment to be rape under the current FBI definition of rape, and that they’ll consider my suggestion in modifying documentation for the reporting agencies to reflect that more clearly.

Here’s the story on how this came about as well as screenshots of the email communication with Ms. Reese at the FBI.

Response from RAINN on the 15th of March e-mail

Permutationofninjas on Tumblr set a campaign in motion to e-mail RAINN on the 15th of March 2014 asking them about their use of statistics which excludes male victimization like being made to penetrate. I wrote a blog post encouraging everyone to join that campaign in sending an e-mail to RAINN.

I did so myself using Permutationofninjas template as a basis and added some information about me and how I was raped. Here is the mail I sent:

CDC caught in a lie

Alison Tieman (typhonblue) of AVfM has made a video using puzzle pieces to illustrate how CDC categorize made to penetrate as not rape.

About halfway through the video there is an interview where Hannah Wallen (also of AVfM I believe) is talking on the phone with a person from the CDC on their decision to categorize made to penetrate as something else than rape in their NISVS 2010 Report.

The person from CDC state that the definitions of rape and made to penetrate are in line with CDC’s uniform definitions for sexual violence. This can be heard from the 6:28 mark in the video.

That is a lie

They are not in line with CDC’s uniform definitions for sexual violence. The CDC uniform definitions of sexual violence defines rape as a completed nonconsensual sex act (i.e., rape) where sex act is defined as contact between the penis and the vulva or the penis and the anus involving penetration, however slight; contact between the mouth and penis, vulva, or anus; or penetration of the anal or genital opening of another person by a hand, finger, or other object.

Made to penetrate is not mentioned in their uniform definitions of sexual violence at all. Made to penetrate would however fall within the definition of rape used as made to penetrate would entail “contact between the penis and the vulva involving penetration”, “contact between the penis and the anus involving penetration” or “contact between the mouth and penis”.

I have already documented this back in October last year in a post titled “Did the NISVS 2010 Report really use CDC’s definition of rape?” where more details and links to CDC’s uniform definitions of sexual violence can be found.

 

E-mail RAINN on Saturday, March 15, 2014

A thank you to everyone who mailed RAINN on Saturday.

 

E-mail RAINN on Saturday, March 15, 2014

Permutationofninjas are asking people to e-mail RAINN on the 15th of March 2014 asking them to consider using a more gender-inclusive definition of rape for their statistics and rape awareness campaigns. More specifically to ask them to include made to penetrate – a form of sexual violence which 4.8% of US men report in their lifetime and which 1.1% of men report in the last 12 months according to the NISVS 2010 Report from the CDC.

Please consider joining us in sending such a mail. The link in the title of this post contains a template one can use.

Koss again

I’ve previously written about Mary P. Koss’ 1993 paper Detecting the Scope of Rape : A Review of Prevalence Research Methods in a post titled Exactly what is inappropriate? and how she recommends one defines rape.

Some may argue that 1993 is 20 years ago and that she might have changed her opinion since then.

So let’s take a look.

Male victims ignored again: Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault by The National Research Council

A while ago I wrote a post about a Salon article titled “America still doesn’t know how to talk about rape” where I pointed out how that article somewhat ironic considering it’s title failed at talking about male rape. That article and another article I mentioned were based on the publication of a document titled “Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault” authored by The Panel on Measuring Rape and Sexual Assault in Bureau of Justice Statistics Household Surveys. I promised I would look further into that 266 pages long document.

Now I have read it in full and it seems the prospects of getting accurate statistics on male victimization of rape and sexual assault continues to be bleak.