In New York City, the police department receives more than 1,000 complaints about public lewdness or forcible sexual touching each year…and these are vastly under-reported crimes.

Because of this problem, new state legislation was recently introduced that would give offenders found guilty of unwanted sexual contact a felony with jail time and they’d have to register as a sex offender.

Via Fox News:

“The new legislation will close a loophole opened in a recent court ruling, which downgraded the penalties for lewd, unwanted touching in crowded spaces like subways and buses.

A new proposal in both houses of the state legislature would upgrade aggravated sexual contact to a Class “B’ felony. Under the new law, unwanted sexually-motivated touching of someone who is physically helpless, unable to move or on public transit would be punishable with jail time.

Under the current law it’s only a misdemeanor, which means predators convicted of crimes such as grinding up against someone on a crowded subway, could receive just a fine.”

This sounds like a step in the right direction and a harsher punishment – if publicized well – may help prevent as many instances of unwanted sexual conduct.

Here’s a good article on The Atlantic‘s website about this: “Dear New York: Please Make Subway ‘Grinding’ a Felony. Now.“