It seems a little surprising that the 'Pubic-ans aren't up in arms about the very recent change in the FBI definition of rape, to make it inclusive of forcible "penetrations" of males as well as of females (along with a few other changes).

For the benefit of those not familiar with US "justice" the FBI investigates and prosecutes only those crimes defined as Federal offenses in Federal law, and there are relatively few kinds of cases in which they would be involved in which rape would be one of the charges. Rape is variously and individually defined by state statutes, and most prosecutions are "local" according to the laws of the state where the offense occured.

There is no real requirement for the state statutes to agree with the new definition, for purposes of enforcement; and it's unlikely that most states will rush to make thier laws agree.

The prinicpal use of the new "definition" is to achieve more uniform reporting for purposes of the "crime statistics" that are maintained by the Feds, although most of the news writers who've reported on the change don't seem to have a very clear understanding of it's (lack of)immmediate significance.

John