Sexual Assault: Policy and Definitions

To help students understand behaviors that constitute sexual assault we have provided the following definitions adopted by St. Mary's College of Maryland. These definitions are provided in addition to sexual offenses as defined by Maryland Annotated Code.

Sexual Assault I: By stranger or acquaintance, rape, forcible sodomy, or forcible sexual penetration, however slight, of another person's anal, genital or oral opening with any object. These acts must be committed either by force, threat, intimidation or through the use of the victim's mental or physical helplessness of which the accused was aware or should have been aware.

Sexual Assault II: By stranger or acquaintance, the touch of an unwilling person's intimate parts (defined as genitalia, groin, breast or buttocks, or clothing covering them) or forcing an unwilling person to touch another's intimate parts. These acts must be committed either by force, aggression, threat, intimidation or through the use of the victim's mental or physical helplessness of which the accused was aware or should have been aware.