New Hampshire Rape and Sexual Assault Laws

Code Section

What’s Prohibited?

Sexual Penetration:

Engaging in sexual penetration with another person when:

• The offender overcomes the victim through physical force, physical violence, or superior physical strength (or the threat of such force if the victim believes the offender has the ability to execute the threat)
• The victim is physically helpless to resist
• The victim submits under circumstances involving false imprisonment, kidnapping, or extortion
• The offender (without the knowledge or consent of the victim) administers to the victim an intoxicating substance that mentally incapacitates the victim
• The offender provides therapy or medical treatment to the victim and during the treatment (or within one year) uses their position to coerce the victim to submit to the act
• The victim has a disability that renders him incapable of freely deciding whether or not to engage in sexual conduct, and the offenders knows or has reason to know that the victim has such a disability (spouses excluded)
• The offender uses concealment or surprise to engage in sexual penetration with the victim before the victim has a chance to flee or resist
• The victim is older than 13 and under 16 years old and the parties are members of the same household, are related by blood, or the offender exercises a position of authority over the victim (spouses excluded)
• The victim is less than 13 years old
• At the time of the sexual assault, the victim indicates that they don’t consent to the act, or
• The offender is in a position of authority over the victim, either in an incarceration facility or as a probation officer, and uses that authority to coerce the victim to submit

Ways to commit sexual assault without penetration:

• Intentionally touching the genitalia of a person who is less than 13 years old for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification
• Engaging in a pattern of sexual assault against another person (who isn’t the offender’s spouse) who is less than 16 years old, or
• Engaging in sexual penetration with a person who is less than 18 years old and is the offender’s blood relative

Code Section

What’s Prohibited?

• Subjecting the victim to sexual contact and causing serious personal injury under any of the circumstances outlined in the aggravated felonious sexual assault chart above
• Engaging in sexual penetration with someone who is older than 13 and under 16 years old where the age difference between the offender and the victim is four years or more (spouses excluded)
• Engaging in sexual contact with someone who is less than 13 years old (spouses excluded), or
• Engaging in sexual contact with a victim when the offender is in a position of authority, either in an incarceration facility or as a probation officer, and uses that authority to coerce the victim to submit

Code Section

What’s Prohibited?

• Subjecting a person who is 13 years old or older to sexual contact under any of the circumstances outlined in the aggravated felonious sexual assault chart above
• Subjecting someone who is older than 13 and under 16 years old to engage in sexual contact where the age difference between the actor and the victim is four years or more (spouses excluded)
• In the absence of any of the circumstances set out in the aggravated felonious sexual assault, when the actor engages in sexual penetration with a person who is older than 13 and under 16 years old where the age difference between the offender’s age and the victim’s age is four years or less (spouses excluded), or
• Engaging in sexual contact or sexual penetration with a victim when the offender is in a position of authority, either in an incarceration facility or as a probation officer, and uses that authority to coerce the victim to submit