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Kentucky Revised Statutes · § 510.010 — Definitions for chapter

510.010. Definitions for chapter

The following definitions apply in this chapter unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Adult intermediary" means a person who is eighteen (18) years of age or older and communicates with another for the purpose of procuring or promoting the use of a minor in violation of KRS 510.155;

(2) "Course of conduct" means a pattern of conduct composed of two (2) or more acts, evidencing a continuity of purpose;

(3) "Deviate sexual intercourse" means any act of sexual gratification involving the sex organs of one person and the mouth or anus of another; or penetration of the anus of one person by any body part or a foreign object manipulated by another person. "Deviate sexual intercourse" does not include penetration of the anus by any body part or a foreign object in the course of the performance of generally recognized health-care practices;

(4) "Forcible compulsion" means physical force or threat of physical force, express or implied, which places a person in fear of immediate death, physical injury to self or another person, fear of the immediate kidnap of self or another person, or fear of any offense under this chapter. Physical resistance on the part of the victim shall not be necessary to meet this definition;

(5) "Foreign object" means anything used in commission of a sexual act other than the person of the actor;

(6) "Grooming behavior" means a course of conduct directed at a minor that is intended to establish an emotional connection with a minor through manipulation, trust-building, or influence to:

(a) Facilitate future acts of sexual conduct; or

(b) Normalize or desensitize the minor to acts of sexual conduct;

even if no in-person meeting or act of sexual conduct is completed. This conduct may occur online or in person, through third parties, or by other indirect methods to facilitate the manipulation of a minor;

(7) "Individual with an intellectual disability" means a person with significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period;

(8) "Mental illness" means a diagnostic term that covers many clinical categories, typically including behavioral or psychological symptoms, or both, along with impairment of personal and social function, and specifically defined and clinically interpreted through reference to criteria contained in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Third Edition) and any subsequent revision thereto, of the American Psychiatric Association;

(9) "Mentally incapacitated" means that a person is rendered temporarily incapable of appraising or controlling his or her conduct as a result of the influence of an intoxicating substance administered to him or her without his or her consent or as a result of any other act committed upon him or her without his or her consent;

(10) "Physically helpless" means that a person is unconscious or for any other reason is physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act. "Physically helpless" also includes a person who has been rendered unconscious or for any other reason is physically unable to communicate an unwillingness to an act as a result of the influence of a controlled substance or legend drug;

(11) "Registrant" has the same meaning as in KRS 17.500;

(12) "Sexual conduct" has the same meaning as in KRS 531.010;

(13) "Sexual contact" means the touching of a person's intimate parts or the touching of the clothing or other material intended to cover the immediate area of a person's intimate parts, if that touching can be construed by a reasonable person as being done:

(a) For the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification of either party;

(b) For a sexual purpose; or

(c) In a sexual manner for the purpose of:

1. Exacting revenge or retribution;

2. Humiliating or degrading; or

3. Punishment; and

(14) "Sexual intercourse" means sexual intercourse in its ordinary sense and includes penetration of the sex organs of one person by any body part or a foreign object manipulated by another person. Sexual intercourse occurs upon any penetration, however slight; emission is not required. "Sexual intercourse" does not include penetration of the sex organ by any body part or a foreign object in the course of the performance of generally recognized health-care practices.

Source notes

Effective: July 15, 2026

History and annotations

Amended 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 65, sec. 2, effective July 15, 2026. -- Amended 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 34, sec. 2, effective June 29, 2023. -- Amended 2021 Ky. Acts ch. 88, sec. 1, effective June 29, 2021. -- Amended 2018 Ky. Acts ch. 34, sec. 1, effective July 14, 2018. -- Amended 2012 Ky. Acts ch. 146, sec. 123, effective July 12, 2012. -- Amended 2002 Ky. Acts ch. 259, sec. 6, effective July 15, 2002. -- Amended 2000 Ky. Acts ch. 401, sec. 4, effective July 14, 2000. -- Amended 1996 Ky. Acts ch. 300, sec. 2, effective July 15, 1996. -- Amended 1992 Ky. Acts ch. 355, sec. 1 effective July 14, 1992. --Amended 1990 Ky. Acts ch. 448, sec. 1, effective July 13, 1990. -- Amended 1988 Ky. Acts ch. 78, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1988; and ch. 283, sec. 9, effective July 15, 1988. -- Amended 1986 Ky. Acts ch. 486, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1986. -- Created 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 406, sec. 81.

Official source for this version

Source captured 2026-09-25. Open the official source.

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