A new concept of the energy release rate of a finite cracked body is proposed. Considering the global view of the strain energy density field, the new fracture parameter presented here is different from the conventional energy release rate that only depends on the stress field around the crack tip but neglects the influences induced by the boundary conditions on the far field. Based on the hypothesis of the energy density theory, fracture initiation and termination, respectively can be predicted by the local and global relative minima of the strain energy density function. The new energy release rate is then defined as the integration of the strain energy density along the fracture trajectory from the initiation point to the destination point. The results show that the difference between the new and the conventional energy release rate becomes more pronounced if the material has a large core region (or the material is more ductile) and if the height‐width ratio of a finite cracked plate is comparatively small.