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Penal Law § 130.55 · Article 130. Sex Offenses

Sexual abuse in the third degree

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)

§ 130.55 Sexual abuse in the third degree.

A person is guilty of sexual abuse in the third degree when he or she subjects another person to sexual contact without the latter's consent; except that in any prosecution under this section, it is an affirmative defense that (a) such other person's lack of consent was due solely to incapacity to consent by reason of being less than seventeen years old, and (b) such other person was more than fourteen years old, and (c) the defendant was less than five years older than such other person.

Sexual abuse in the third degree is a class B misdemeanor.

Source of truth

Edition
Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
Official file
https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN130.55
Text hash
sha256 80aad9b101b693a5cc93e73e372af5a2ed0967b1bce7dd533a1fc0df3c816e7c
Composed by
gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.