Mr. Weinstein could have been charged with “forcible touching,’’ a statute in the state’s penal code that includes the sexual gratification clause and remains troubling for other reasons as well. As Jane Manning, a former sex crimes prosecutor who is the director of advocacy for the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women asked, “What is the term ‘forcible’ doing in there?’’ If someone lunges at your breast while you are looking at your phone, there is no “force.” A more progressive law would simply forbid unsolicited touching.

The forcible touching law came about as part of the Sexual Assault Reform Act in 2001, after feminists had agitated for a strengthening of the charge of third-degree sex abuse — which also pertained in Mr. Weinstein’s case. Third-degree sex abuse was meant to deal with groping, but it did so inadequately. It was, and remains, a Class B misdemeanor, which puts it on par with soliciting money for fortune telling. The forcible touching statute was meant as a compromise — forcible touching is a Class A misdemeanor with punishment of up to a year in prison. But as Ms. Manning pointed out, sentences of that kind are rarely administered. Beyond that, the sexual gratification stipulation was attached, however inexplicably, angering activists. “If the gratification premise is there and it keeps prosecutors from prosecuting people like Harvey,’’ Ms. Manning said, “it has to change.”

Landmark legislation around sex crimes was unlikely to have taken shape in the New York State Legislature at the start of the millennium. For years, mostly male lawmakers and those in their orbit clung to a secret agreement known as the Bear Mountain compact, in which affairs and assignations with young staff members and interns occurring north of the Bear Mountain Bridge weren’t talked about in New York City and other home districts.

In June 2003, J. Michael Boxley, who served as the right hand to the eventually disgraced Democratic assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, was charged with raping a 22-year-old staff member after a night of drinking. This was two years after another female aide accused Mr. Boxley of sexually assaulting her in his apartment. That investigation, conducted by the Assembly rather than by the police, was eventually closed with Mr. Boxley denying the accusations. He pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct in the second instance, but did not go to prison. His law license was suspended temporarily. Since 2011 he has been working for the Albany law firm of Brown & Weinraub, a legal and consulting outfit. Mr. Boxley had no hand in the sex reform legislation, but when I asked David Weinraub, one of the name partners, how he came to be hired, he said that he had known Mr. Boxley for 30 years.