26 articles
2015–16 New Year's Eve sexual assaults
Mass sexual assaults, robberies, and thefts against women around Cologne's central station and cathedral on New Year's Eve 2015/16; 1,168 reported crimes including 492 sexual assaults, few convictions, a Landtag inquiry, and a 2016 criminal-law tightening.
2026 TCS Nashik workplace harassment case
The 2026 TCS Nashik workplace harassment case concerns nine FIRs and eight arrests of employees at Tata Consultancy Services' Nashik BPO over alleged sexual harassment, rape, and religious coercion, with an SIT probe, NCW findings of POSH non-compliance, and subsequent bail orders.
DPS MMS scandal
DPS MMS scandal: 2004 Delhi Public School cellphone video case, also called DPS Dhamaka, in which an explicit clip of two underage students spread by MMS and was listed on Bazee.com, triggering arrests including CEO Avnish Bajaj and shaping India's Section 66E IT Act.
Enumclaw horse sex case
Enumclaw horse sex case, also called the Mr. Hands incident: July 2, 2005 death of Kenneth Pinyan from sex with a stallion near Enumclaw, Washington; led to Washington's 2006 bestiality law, a Class C felony.
Eve teasing
Eve teasing: South Asian (Indian English) term for public sexual harassment of women and girls, covering catcalling, groping, stalking, and obscene gestures; criticized as a trivializing euphemism for street harassment.
Forced prostitution
Forced prostitution, also called involuntary prostitution, occurs when a person is made to engage in prostitution through coercion, violence, or deception that removes genuine consent.
Frotteurism
Frotteurism, also called frotteuristic disorder (ICD-11 6D34), is a paraphilic disorder involving sexual arousal from rubbing against non-consenting people in crowded public places; classified since DSM-III-R 1987, prevalence roughly 8-10% of males.
Grok sexual deepfake scandal
Grok sexual deepfake scandal: late December 2025 outbreak of nonconsensual sexualized AI images, including of minors, made with Elon Musk's xAI Grok on X; over 6,000 per hour at peak, followed by bans, investigations, and a Canadian PIPEDA violation finding.
Groping
Groping is non-consensual sexual touching of intimate body areas. Not a formal legal term; charged as sexual battery, forcible touching, indecent assault, or abusive sexual contact (18 USC 2244), usually a misdemeanor in the US.
History of zoophilia
History of zoophilia, also called bestiality, traces human-animal sexual contact from Hittite and biblical death-penalty laws, through medieval Christian criminalization, to DSM-III (1980) paraphilia classification and modern animal-welfare-based statutes in most US states and Europe.
Indecent exposure
Indecent exposure is the crime of publicly exposing one's genitals in a way likely to offend or alarm others, usually a misdemeanor in most U.S. states.
Lascivious behavior
Lascivious behavior (lewd and lascivious conduct): a criminal-law category for lewd, obscene sexual conduct, defined variously by US state statutes such as Florida §798.02 and Kansas §21-5513, with penalties from misdemeanor to felony.
Matthew Falder
Matthew Falder, British geophysicist and Cambridge graduate, blackmailed 46 victims online as "Liz" and "666devil"; admitted 137 offences, jailed 32 years in 2018, reduced to 25 on appeal.
Operation Spanner
Operation Spanner: 1987 UK Metropolitan Police investigation into gay consensual sadomasochism, leading to the Spanner trials, R v Brown, and Laskey v UK.
Rape pornography
Rape pornography depicts rape or non-consensual sexual activity, usually simulated. Covered by UK extreme pornography law (possession offence extended 2015; CPS 2019 guideline excluded consenting-adult material); effects research shows weak, contested associations.
Revenge porn
Revenge porn, also called non-consensual pornography or NCII, is the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images, part of image-based sexual abuse; distinguished by motive from general NCII and now criminalized by the US Take It Down Act and UK Online Safety Act.
Sextortion
Sextortion is sexual blackmail, or sexual extortion, where offenders threaten to release intimate images unless demands are met. Financial variants often target young men aged 18 to 24.
Sexual abuse of animals
Sexual abuse of animals (bestiality, zoophilia) is human sexual contact with nonhuman animals, criminalized in nearly all US states and much of Europe, with veterinary forensic methods and recent UK law reforms defining the offense.
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, also called unwelcome sexual conduct or sex-based harassment, is sex discrimination under Title VII, taking quid pro quo and hostile work environment forms, prohibited in nearly two-thirds of UN states and governed by ILO Convention 190.
Sexual misconduct
Sexual misconduct is a non-legal umbrella term for unwelcome or non-consensual sexual behavior, spanning harassment, abuse, and assault, used in workplace, medical, academic, military, and UN policies; neither Black's nor Ballentine's law dictionaries define it.
Sexual slavery
Sexual slavery: holding a person in slavery and forcing sexual acts or services. Also called sex slavery, enslavement for sexual exploitation; overlaps sex trafficking. Key facts: ISIL slave markets in Raqqa, ILO $173 billion sexual-exploitation profits, 6.3 million victims in 2021.
Upskirt
Upskirting: covert photography or filming under a person's clothing without consent. Criminal in England and Wales under the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 after Gina Martin's campaign; Scotland criminalized it earlier.
Vince McMahon sex trafficking scandal
Vince McMahon sex trafficking scandal: Janel Grant's January 2024 federal lawsuit against McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and WWE over sexual abuse and a $3 million NDA, the SEC settlement, and 2026 arbitration.
Voyeurism
Voyeurism: sexual arousal from secretly watching unsuspecting people naked, disrobing, or in sexual activity; a paraphilia distinct from voyeuristic disorder (DSM-5-TR, ICD-11 6D31), criminalized as video voyeurism and upskirting in many countries.
Whipping Tom
Whipping Tom, the nickname of an unidentified predator who attacked lone women in London alleys in 1681, recorded in the pamphlet Whipping Tom Brought to Light; a copycat, Thomas Wallis, struck in 1712.
Zoosadism
Zoosadism: sexual pleasure derived from torturing animals; distinct from zoophilia and bestiality. Studied in psychology, criminology, and forensic science; publicized by the 2018 Furry Zoosadist Leaks.