How Is
"Domestic Violence" Defined Under California Law?

Any willful and unlawful application of physical force against another person is an act of battery. When the victim is an intimate partner of the perpetrator, then it's domestic battery. Even if not actual injury is caused, so long as there was an attempt to commit actions that would likely result in such injury, it wasn't an accident or self-defense, and physical contact was made with the victim, then it counts as domestic battery. This is a misdemeanor charge.

When battery or another action results in actual physical injury to an intimate partner, then it is the crime of corporal injury. The exact degree of penalty will correspond to the degree of injury, the defendant's prior criminal record, and other details of the incident will determine if PC 273.5 is charged as a felony or as a misdemeanor. As a felony, this crime is punishable by up to 4 years in state prison.

Although criminal threats is not exclusively a domestic violence crime, it quite often comes up in domestic violence cases. When assault, battery, or corporal injury may not have taken place but the threat to commit such acts allegedly did occur, then PC 422 will be charged. Issuing criminal threats can be a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the nature and context of the threats issued. As a felony, it counts as a "strike" under our state's Three Strikes Laws.

Stalking is also frequently connected with domestic violence crimes and with making criminal threats. It need not be physically walking around following someone, although that's often the form it takes. Stalking can also be making harassing communications toward another person or threatening that person or his or her family. Stalking PC 646.9 can be either felony or misdemeanor. As a misdemeanor, stalking can get you up to a 1 year jail term; as a felony, it can carry to 3 years in prison.

It may seem odd at first glance that damaging or destroying a telephone line and/or telephone is a criminal offense and is consider, in one respect, a domestic violence offense. But what often happens is that someone intent on committing domestic violence cuts off all means of communication so the victim can't call for help. Therefore, PC 591 is a serious offense. It can be charged as either misdemeanor/felony, and as a felony it is punishable by 3 years in prison and a fine as high as $10,000.

Ordinary trespassing would normally be a misdemeanor, but aggravated trespass can be a felony in some situations. The reason why this is such a serious crime isn't so much the violation of private property, but the fact that aggravated trespassing occurs within 30 days of issuing a criminal threat - and is done to attempt to carry out that threat, which is often a threat to commit domestic violence or even to murder or maim a victim.

"Revenge porn" is a kind of cyber harassment where someone posts pornographic pictures of an ex for the purpose of embarrassing and distressing that person. In today's age of the Internet, this crime is not that uncommon and the posts can be seen by large numbers of people, including friends and family, or by friends of the perpetrator in a matter of days or hours. This is a misdemeanor crime that is punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to 12 months in jail.

There are other ways besides revenge porn that people get revenge or otherwise harm others' reputations, harass, and cause offense via online postings. When the Internet is used to harass directly with messages to the victim, that is stalking; but when it's done indirectly by posting items and sending messages to others, then it violates PC 653.

All too often, child abuse occurs in the context of domestic violence. When a child is treated cruelly and caused bodily harm due to the willful act of an adult, it is child abuse. Child abuse charges cannot eliminate the right of parents to exercise reasonable disciplinary measures, nor is an accidental injury abuse. Also, it is not at all impossible that a child (under 18) would invent a story to try to get an unwanted adult out of his/her life.

When an adult willfully places a child under his or her custody in danger of physical injury or death, or when he/she leaves the child in the care of someone known to be irresponsible or dangerous, it is child endangerment. When the child was at risk of "great bodily injury," PC 273a is a felony. Otherwise, it is usually a misdemeanor.

Under PC 270, the willful failure to provide basic necessities for a child under one's care - such as food, shelter, clothes, an education, etc., to a minor under your care is the crime of child neglect. In tense, chronically dysfunctional home situations, sadly, children are often neglected even if not abused or endangered.

Many times, an elderly relative who lives with an abusive son, daughter, or in law, suffers abuse. It may be physical or verbal abuse, or financial fraud, neglect, or endangerment. Abuse of those 65 or older is a specific crime in California. As a misdemeanor, it is punishable by a year in jail, and as a felony, it is punishable by up to 4 years in prison.