NY weighs making sexual harassment a crime

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Sexual harassment is prohibited under state and federal law, but it’s not a crime. Two bills in Albany would change that by creating the nation’s first sexual harassment crime, punishable by jail time rather than fines or firing allowed under civil law.

The bills would elevate sexual harassment to a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail. It would be a powerful new tool to address the misconduct now handled by negotiations with employers, through government agencies under civil law or by lawsuits, advocates told Newsday.

One bill, sponsored by Assemb. Rebecca Seawright (D-Manhattan) was revised in March as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo faced repeated allegations of sexual harassment against women, most of whom had worked for him. Seawright's bill would create the misdemeanor of "official misconduct of sexual harassment," but is restricted to state legislators. But she said her bill is just a first step.

Another bill would create a misdemeanor for slapping, striking or kicking someone for sexual gratification. The bill is sponsored by two of the Legislature’s progressive leaders, Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx) and Assemb. Yuh-Line Niou (D-Manhattan).

The misdemeanor would require the sexual harassment to be done "with the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification and without consent." The bill states a person who commits the proposed misdemeanor "slaps, strikes, shoves or kicks another person, or otherwise subjects such person to physical contact, or attempts to threaten" to do so.

Currently, the act of sexual harassment results in criminal convictions only if the incidents rise to the level of other crimes such as sexual misconduct, rape, menacing or harassment and are proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Those crimes often require a threat of life or persistent abuse or assault.

A lesser standard of a "preponderance of evidence" is required to take civil action against a harasser.