The CDC's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey defines "rape" similarly to the Justice Department—as forced penetration of a person's body:

  • Rape is defined as any completed or attempted unwanted vaginal (for women), oral, or anal penetration through the use of physical force (such as being pinned or held down, or by the use of violence) or threats to physically harm and includes times when the victim was drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent. Rape is separated into three types, completed forced penetration, attempted forced penetration, and completed alcohol or drug facilitated penetration.

To complement this definition of "rape", they define "being made to penetrate someone else" as:

  • Being made to penetrate someone else includes times when the victim was made to, or there was an attempt to make them, sexually penetrate someone without the victim’s consent because the victim was physically forced (such as being pinned or held down, or by the use of violence) or threatened with physical harm, or when the victim was drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent.

According to the law men can't be raped by women - only "forced to penetrate"

The statistics for these types of sexual victimization were in 2011, for the 12 months preceding the survey:

  • 1.6% of women were raped by a perpetrator. (An insignificant number of men were raped.)
  • 1.7% of men were made to penetrate a perpetrator. (An insignificant number of women were forced to penetrate.)

In 2010, for the 12 months preceding the survey:

  • 1.1% of women were raped by a perpetrator. (An insignificant number of men were raped.)
  • 1.1% of men were made to penetrate a perpetrator. (An insignificant number of women were forced to penetrate.)

Discussion:

This data suggests that on an annual basis, men are equally likely as women to be forced against their will to participate in sexual intercourse when the definitions that are used are appropriate for each gender and not skewed so that only men can legally be considered "rapists." These statistics do not also take into account the hundreds of thousands of US men who are raped each year in prisons.

Interestingly, although the annual incidence of rape for women and being forced to penetrate for men are similar, a much smaller percent of men than women reported either type of victimization over a lifespan. Mathematically this is only possible if a small group of men are being victimized repeatedly, and thus perhaps this provides evidence for hypergamy even in women's choices of which men they sexually victimize.

reference:

  • Breiding MJ, Smith SG, Basile KC, Walters ML, Chen J, Merrick MT. 2014. Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual Violence, Stalking, and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization—National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, United States, 2011. Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC. Surveillance Summaries. 63(SS08):1-18. [FullText]
  • Black MC, Basile KC, Breiding MJ, Smith SG, Walters ML, Merrick MT, Chen J, Stevens MR. 2011. The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary Report. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [FullText]
  • Young C. 2014. The CDC's Rape Numbers Are Misleading. Time Magazine. [News]