HB496 Summary

• Redefines "deviate sexual intercourse" as "sodomy" and consolidates mental defectiveness, mental incapacitation, and physical helplessness into a single "incapacitated" definition applicable across sexual offense statutes.

• Expands definition of "sexual contact" to include touching through clothing without regard to marital relationship, and makes certain sexual contact an offense under sexual misconduct (Class A misdemeanor).

• Broadens "forcible compulsion" definition to include threatened use of physical force, violence, confinement, restraint, physical injury, or death, with factors for determining implied threats and removal of resistance requirement.

• Removes gender-specific language from rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse statutes to apply equally regardless of victim or perpetrator gender; adds sexual torture as Class A felony with four distinct criminal acts.

• Becomes effective on the first day of the third month following passage and approval; excludes bill from Amendment 621 requirements because it defines new or amends existing crime definitions.