In New York, “forcible touching” is a Class A misdemeanor, meaning it carries a sentence of up to a year of incarceration or three years of probation, and a $1,000 fine. In Florida, battery is a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries a sentence of up to a year in jail, and a $1,000 fine…

Rarely, although reliable data is scarce. Jennifer Long, a former assistant district attorney in Pennsylvania who is now the executive director of AEquitas, a technical assistance organization for sexual violence prosecutors, said it was hard to know because few adult victims of groping report that crime “unless it is a complete stranger on the street.” She said even fewer such allegations get through the system to a prosecution.

Even when a contact crime is charged, it is not always because of groping alone. Ms. Long said that when she was a prosecutor, defendants were sometimes charged with contact crimes for violent attacks when there was not sufficient evidence of penetration, or to back up rape charges. “It’s very hard to generalize, but I would sense that these cases are probably not prosecuted frequently,” she said.