Rape is defined by the United States Department of Justice as "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." While definitions and terminology of rape vary by jurisdiction in the United States, the FBI revised its definition in 2013 to eliminate a requirement that the crime involve an element of force.

A 2013 study concluded that rape was grossly underreported in the United States.National Research Council. Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2013. Another 2014 study found that police departments may remove or undercount rapes from official records in part to "create the illusion of success in fighting violent crime".Yung, C. R. (2014). How to Lie with Rape Statistics: America's Hidden Rape Crisis. Iowa Law Review, 99(1197).

According to the 2013 National Crime Victimization Survey, the annual prevalence rate for all sexual assaults including rape was 0.1% (annual prevalence rate represents the number of victims each year, rather than the number of assaults since some are victimized more than once during the reporting period). The survey included males and females aged 12+. Since rapes are a subset of all sexual assaults, the prevalence of rape is lower than the combined statistic. Of those assaults, the Bureau of Justice Statistics stated that 34.8% were reported to the police, up from 29.3% in 2004.

Definitions

In the United States, at the Federal level, the FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR) definitions are used when collating national crime statistics from states across the US. The UCR's definition of rape was changed on 1 January 2013 to remove the requirement of force against a female and to include a wider range of types of penetration. The new definition reads:

For 80 years prior to the 2013 change, the UCR's definition of rape was "carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will".

At the state level, there is no uniform legal definition of rape; instead, each state has their own laws. These definitions can vary considerably. Many U.S. states replaced the traditional legal term rape during widespread reforms in the 1970s and 1980s, instead using sexual assault, criminal sexual conduct, sexual abuse, sexual battery, etc.

One legal definition, which is used by the United States Armed Forces is found in the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice [Title 10, Subtitle A, Chapter 47X, Section 920, Article 120], defines rape as:

Statistics and data

Prevalence and number of incidents The National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) stated that 300,000 women and 93,000 men were raped annually between November 1995 to May 1996. Rape prevalence among women in the U.S. (the percentage of women who experienced rape at least once in their lifetime so far) is in the range of 15–20% according to different studies (National Violence Against Women Survey, 1995, found 17.6% prevalence rate; a 2007 national study for the Department of Justice on rape found 18% prevalence rate.). According to a March 2013 report from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 1995 to 2010, the estimated annual rate of female rape or sexual assault declined 58%, from 5.0 victimizations per 1,000 females age 12 or older to 2.1 per 1,000. Assaults on young women aged 12–17 declined from 11.3 per 1,000 in 1994–1998 to 4.1 per 1,000 in 2005–2010; assaults on women aged 18–34 also declined over the same period, from 7.0 per 1,000 to 3.7.

The 2018 Uniform Crime Report (UCR), which measures rapes that are reported to police, estimated that there were 139,380 rapes reported to law enforcement in 2018.2018 Crime in the United States, "Table 1 ", Criminal Justice Information Services Division, United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 18 June 2022 The 2016 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which measures sexual assaults and rapes that may not have been reported to the police, estimated that there were 431,840 incidents of rape or sexual assault in 2015.

Other government surveys, such as the Sexual Victimization of College Women study, critique the NCVS on the basis it includes only those acts perceived as crimes by the victim, and report a much higher victimization rate. Estimates from other sources typically report much higher levels of both rape and sexual assault than either the NCVS or UCR. A 2010 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control found that around 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men (an additional 1 in 21 men were 'made to penetrate' someone else) had experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. Differences in survey samples, definitions of rape and sexual assault, and the wording of survey questions likely contribute to these differences, and there is no consensus on the best way to measure rape and sexual assault. Both the NCVS and UCR are believed to significantly under-count the number of rapes and sexual assaults that occur.

Based on the available data, 21.8% of American rapes of female victims are gang rapes.Horvath, Miranda et al. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape. Routledge 2013, page 15. RAINN, an American nonprofit anti-sexual assault organization, the largest in the United States, reported: every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted.

According to the 2016/2017 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 26 men in the United States have experienced rape in their lifetime. Additionally, 1 in 9 men in the United States report being forced to penetrate someone during their lifetime.

A United States Department of Justice report, Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, states that "In 2011–12, an estimated 4.0% of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility, if less than 12 months." However, advocates dispute the accuracy of the numbers, saying they under-report the real numbers of sexual assaults in prison, especially among juveniles.

Shift in the form of crime

Over the last four decades, rape has been declining. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the adjusted annual per-capita victimization rate of rape has declined from about 2.4 per 1000 people (age 12 and above) in 1980 (that is, 2.4 persons from each 1000 people 12 and older were raped in 1980) to about 0.4 per 1000 people in 2003, a decline of about 85%. There are several possible explanations for this, including stricter laws and education on security for women.

Demographics of attackers and victims The Federal Bureau of Investigation have also collected data cases involving victims and perpetrators of sex offenses:

+ Sex offense offenders and victims statistics (Data: FBI)Year Offenders Victims Male Female Unknown Male Female Unknown 2012 65,071 (Forcible)5,859 (Nonforcible) 3,853 (Forcible)541 (Nonforcible) 1,517 (Forcible)86 (Nonforcible) 11,471 (Forcible)629 (Nonforcible) 61,486 (Forcible)5,859 (Nonforcible) 175 (Forcible)5 (Nonforcible) 2013 62,280 (Forcible)5,396 (Nonforcible) 3,846 (Forcible)530 (Nonforcible) 1,486 (Forcible)77 (Nonforcible) 10,961 (Forcible)643 (Nonforcible) 58,981 (Forcible)5,511 (Nonforcible) 202 (Forcible)9 (Nonforcible) 2014 62,393 (Forcible)4,804 (Nonforcible) 4,034 (Forcible)498 (Nonforcible) 1,678 (Forcible)51 (Nonforcible) 10,821 (Forcible)590 (Nonforcible) 59,875 (Forcible)4,888 (Nonforcible) 232 (Forcible)6 (Nonforcible) 2015 66,545 (Forcible)4,712 (Nonforcible) 4,391 (Forcible)473 (Nonforcible) 2,069 (Forcible)52 (Nonforcible)11,463 (Forcible)520 (Nonforcible) 64,202 (Forcible)4,836 (Nonforcible) 225 (Forcible)3 (Nonforcible) 2016 73,249 (Forcible)4,588 (Nonforcible) 4,580 (Forcible)516 (Nonforcible) 2,174 (Forcible)74 (Nonforcible) 12,146 (Forcible)637 (Nonforcible) 71,180 (Forcible)4,723 (Nonforcible) 285 (Forcible)6 (Nonforcible) 2017 79,635 (Forcible)4,859 (Nonforcible) 4,887 (Forcible)516 (Nonforcible) 2,448 (Forcible)69 (Nonforcible) 12,632 (Forcible)682 (Nonforcible) 78,308 (Forcible)4,922 (Nonforcible) 268 (Forcible)9 (Nonforcible) 2018 91,838 6,002 3,024 14,365 91,219 324 2019 105,030 6,920 3,230 16,263 104,720 3482020https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/# NIBRS Tables FBI109,4217,2863,59116,426110,4124232021149,7249,9223,54721,803154,7265142022170,49112,3183,65327,235176,1576632023176,99912,9214,91930,063182,9196102024182,11113,9364,84232,253186,314699 +Rape offenders and victims (Data: FBI)YearOffendersVictimsMaleFemaleUnknown/Not SpecifiedMaleFemaleUnknown/Not Specified202074,1683,5932,313/5,2948,31672,4421032021103,5564,8272,210/8,84811,432102,8181342022107,6565,3312,186/10,52812,516107,7831272023108,4615,5152,548/11,48113,706108,6921322024108,8775,8882,686/11,67814,532108,592157 Most rape research and reporting to date has concentrated on male-female forms of rape. Male-male and female-male rape has not been as thoroughly researched, and almost no research has been done on female-female rape.

A 1997 report by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 91% of rape victims are female and 9% are male, and that 99% of arrestees for rape are male. However, these statistics are based on reports of "forced penetration". This number excludes instances where men were "made to penetrate" another person, which are assessed separately under "sexual violence". Denov (2004) states that societal responses to the issue of female perpetrators of sexual assault "point to a widespread denial of women as potential sexual aggressors that could work to obscure the true dimensions of the problem."

A 2014 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of college campus rape statistics from National Crime Victimization Survey data collected from 1995 to 2013, and show that rape in college are independent of race. The National Violence Against Women Survey found that 34% of American Indian female respondents had experienced attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. The rapist was more likely to be a non-Native than a Native.

The 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that 13.1% of lesbians, 46.1% of bisexual women, and 17.4% of heterosexual women have been raped, physically assaulted, or stalked.

The 2016/2017 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found that for female victims of rape, 83.4% reported being raped at least one time before the age of 25, with 49.0% reporting they were first raped before the age of 18. For male rape victims, 86.1% reported being raped at least one time before the age of 25, with 56.6% reporting they were first raped before the age of 18. For male victims who were forced to penetrate someone, 79.9% reported being forced to penetrate at least one time before the age of 25, with 41.1% reporting they were forced to penetrate someone before the age of 18.

Women with disabilities in the United States experience significantly higher rates of gender-based violence compared to women without disabilities. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one in four women in the country has a disability. Both women and men with disabilities face increased risks of sexual violence and intimate partner violence. Data from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) indicate that a substantial proportion of female rape victims had a disability at the time of the assault.