POUGHKEEPSIE – Changes in the state rape laws are being lauded by Dutchess County District Attorney Anthony Parisi, who looks forward to using the revised statutes to ensure justice for sexual assault. The changes, signed by Governor Hochul at the end of January expand and update the definition of rape in the penal law to ensure that additional forms of nonconsensual, forced sexual conduct can be prosecuted as rape.
Parisi called the changes “a huge leap forward in the protection and recognition of all survivors of nonconsensual, forced sexual contact.”
The changes in the statute are collectively referred to as the “Rape is Rape Act” and the changes go into effect on September 1. The law removes the penetration requirement as part of the definition from the rape statutes and expands the definition of rape to include not only vaginal sexual contact but oral and anal sexual contact as well. That means under the new statute, oral and anal sexual assaults can now be prosecuted as rape instead of sexual assault.
“The modernization of our rape statutes was long overdue,” said Parisi. “Rape is one of the most heinous crimes and is the ultimate violation of a person’s physical, emotional, and mental being. This update in the law ensures that all forms of rape are treated as the deplorable and traumatizing crimes that they are. This change will empower survivors, will support my office’s continued efforts to hold perpetrators of this violence accountable and fight for justice for all survivors.”
Angela Lopane, Parisi’s chief of the Special Victims Unit, reiterated the importance of the new legislation to survivors and criminal prosecutions. Lopane explained that before the passage of the new law, New York defined penetration of the vagina or other bodily orifices with anything other than a penis as sexual abuse rather than rape. Chief Lopane noted the difficulty with the outdated law saying that “sexual abuse, in many people’s minds,…
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