New York will expand its legal definition of rape to include various forms of nonconsensual sexual contact, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday.
The state’s current limited definition was a factor in writer E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation case against former President Donald Trump. The jury in the federal civil trial rejected the writer’s claim last May that Trump had raped her in the 1990s, instead finding the former president responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse.
The current law defines rape as vaginal penetration by a penis. The new law broadens the definition to include nonconsensual anal, oral, and vaginal sexual contact. Highlighting Carroll’s case at a bill signing ceremony in Albany, the Democratic governor said the new definition will make it easier for rape victims to bring cases forward to prosecute perpetrators. The law will apply to sexual assaults committed on or after Sept. 1.
“The problem is, rape is very difficult to prosecute,” Hochul said. “Physical technicalities confuse jurors and humiliate survivors and create a legal gray area that defendants exploit.”
Their point is that the broadened law does not appear to clearly and obviously cover men being raped by women.
For instance, is it rape under this new law for a woman to forcibly use her hand to jerk off a man without his consent? If not, then shouldn’t it be?
Shouldn’t the law state that forcible and nonconsensual contact with a penis is a crime?
Do you have a copy of the new law to prove it doesn’t say anything about non-consensual contact?
Laws tend to be documented quite well. https://legiscan.com/NY/text/S08008/2023
Appreciate that. Thanks.
No. But it is also not rape under this law for a man to forcibly use his hand to jerk off a woman.
If a woman makes non consensual contact with a mans penis using her vagina, mouth, or anus, that is rape under this law.
Perhaps the law should cover it. But the absense of hand-genital contact in the law is gender neutral.