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.”
Would it be so hard to include penile in there as well.
No, but men can’t be victims of such things anyway, didn’t you know? ^/s
The OP isn’t great. The actual law is fairly clear that men are included.
This is copied from a reply I made further down, about the actual law:
Uhh so where’s the part about a vagina going over a penis?
§2.1 Vaginal Sexual Contact. It’s contact between a penis and vagina or vulva. There’s no directionality to it. It’s only about consent that defines who raped whom. If a woman forces contact between a penis and her vagina or vulva, she raped him with vaginal sexual contact.
It did, as the law was simply broadened to include more information … not wiped clean to only have the new information.
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.
From the top comment of this thread:
From the bill (track changes removed):
https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2023/S3161
Important to also not this:
It does include raping a man orally explicitly in this. No hand stuff is included for anyone. The OP had poor wording, but the law seems fine. Maybe it should be expanded to using hands and other things to rape as well, but it doesn’t exclude men. The way the law is written, it isn’t rape to penetrate anyone with a dildo, for example. Also, a woman can’t rape a woman except for orally in this law.
It has some oversight, but the oversight is not men, it’s just certain methods.
Penile penetration?
Docking and urethrae insertion are a thing, but penetration is clearly not the sole definer because this change is about sexual contact.