What Is a Sexual Act?

What acts qualify as sexual acts? For North Carolina criminal law purposes, it depends on the context. The words "sexual act" show up in several places in the General Statutes. In G.S. 14-27.20(4), sexual act is defined as cunnilingus, fellatio, analingus, anal intercourse, or the penetration of any object into the genital or anal opening of another person’s body, but not vaginal intercourse. That definition applies for the purposes of Article 7B of Chapter 14, Rape and Other Sexual Offenses. It makes sense that the definition of sexual act excludes vaginal intercourse in that context because the main purpose of the law is to define the acts that are serious enough to constitute the crime of sexual offense. If the act in question were vaginal intercourse, the appropriate crime would be rape, and so the definition of sexual act there does not include it. G.S. 14-27.20(5) defines another term, sexual contact, as touching the sexual organ, anus, breast, groin, or buttocks of any person; touching another person with ones own sexual organ, anus, breast, groin, or buttocks; or ejaculating, emitting, or placing semen, urine, or feces upon any part of another person. And that’s significant within Article 7B because for the crimes codified there, mere sexual contacts are not sexual acts; they only wind up qualifying as a less serious crime, misdemeanor sexual battery under G.S. 14-27.33. Further complicating things (and we’re not even out of Article 7B yet) is the recently enacted crime of sexual contact or penetration under pretext [...]