Groping is a type of sexual assault involving the intentional inappropriate touching of another person commonly without their consent. The term generally has a negative connotation in many societies. Touching a consenting person's body during sexual activity, a massage, or a medical examination is not usually considered groping, though the term is sometimes used to include clumsy, selfish, or inappropriate sexual touching. Areas of the body most frequently groped include the buttocks, breasts, vulva, thigh, penis, and scrotum. Gropers might use their hands, but pressing any part of their body against another person can be considered groping.

The practice of women being subjected to a pat down by officers, such as customs or security officers at airports, is controversial. Such behaviour by public officials requires a clear legal authorization.

Toucherism, considered a paraphilia, is a practice of a person touching another non-consenting person with their hands, typically in crowds, for their own sexual pleasure. Groping may be depicted in pornographic films.

Italy used to have a reputation for men pinching women's bottoms, and the term groping could perhaps be applied, but it was not a common term at that time (mid-20th century, for example). Japan has a reputation for men groping women on trains and buses to the extent that the authorities have implemented anti-groping campaigns, which has received considerable media attention and been the subject of serious study in recent years.^{[citation needed]}

In parts of South Asia, especially India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, public sexual harassment or molestation (often known as "street harassment") of women by men is widely referred to as Eve teasing.

In Australia, in August 2019, the host at a charity event offered his cheek to a female guest presenter for a peck, before turning his head and kissing her on the lips. The presenter publicly said: "That kind of behaviour is intolerable and the time for women being subject to it or having to tolerate it is long gone." The host apologised for his behaviour. In 2021, immunity to charges of sexual harassment was withdrawn from Australian politicians.

In April 2019, a doctor in Pennsylvania was charged with indecent assault for touching a male patient's penis during a medical examination. The doctor, 56-year-old William Vollmar, had faced numerous allegations dating back to 2015. On November 12, 2020, Vollmar pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 9 to 20 years in a state prison.

In June 2022, British MP Christopher Pincher was suspended from the Conservative Party after it was alleged that he had groped two men, while drunk, at London's Carlton Club.