Criminal Law Web

NEW YORK PENAL LAW

 Section 130.00 Sex offenses;  definitions of terms

 The following definitions are applicable to this article:

 1. "Sexual intercourse" has its ordinary meaning and occurs upon any penetration, however slight.

 2. "Deviate sexual intercourse" means sexual conduct between persons not married to each other consisting of contact between the penis and the anus, the mouth and penis, or the mouth and the vulva.

 3. "Sexual contact" means any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person not married to the actor for the purpose of gratifying sexual desire of either party.  It includes the touching of the actor by the victim, as well as the touching of the victim by the actor, whether directly or through clothing.

 4. "Female" means any female person who is not married to the actor.  For the purposes of this article "not married" means:

  (a) the lack of an existing relationship of husband and wife between the female and the actor which is recognized by law, or

  (b) the existence of the relationship of husband and wife between the actor and the female which is recognized by law at the time the actor commits an offense proscribed by this article by means of forcible compulsion against the female, and the female and actor are living apart at such time pursuant to a valid and effective:

   (i) order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction which by its terms or in its effect requires such living apart, or

   (ii) decree or judgment of separation, or

   (iii) written agreement of separation subscribed by them and acknowledged in the form required to entitle a deed to be recorded which contains provisions specifically indicating that the actor may be guilty of the commission of a crime for engaging in conduct which constitutes an offense proscribed by this article against and without the consent of the female.

 5. "Mentally defective" means that a person suffers from a mental disease or defect which renders him incapable of appraising the nature of his conduct.

 6. "Mentally incapacitated" means that a person is rendered temporarily incapable of appraising or controlling his conduct owing to the influence of a narcotic or intoxicating substance administered to him without his consent, or to any other act committed upon him without his consent.

 7. "Physically helpless" means that a person is unconscious or for any other reason is physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act.

 8. "Forcible compulsion" means to compel by either:

  a. use of physical force;  or

  b. a threat, express or implied, which places a person in fear of immediate death or physical injury to himself, herself or another person, or in fear that he, she or another person will immediately be kidnapped.

 9. "Foreign object" means any instrument or article which, when inserted in the vagina, urethra, penis or rectum, is capable of causing physical injury.

 10. "Sexual conduct" means sexual intercourse, deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated sexual contact, or sexual contact.

 11. "Aggravated sexual contact" means inserting, other than for a valid medical purpose, a foreign object in the vagina, urethra, penis or rectum of a child, thereby causing physical injury to such child.