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Offenses against children, elderly and disabled persons
Summary of the topic
Three sections protect people who cannot protect themselves. Section 22.04 punishes causing injury to a child, an elderly individual or a disabled individual, and it reaches omission as well as act. Section 22.041 covers abandoning and endangering such a person, and section 25.03 punishes interference with child custody.
The definitions in section 22.04(c) run through the topic. A child is a person 14 years of age or younger, and an elderly individual is a person 65 years of age or older. A disabled individual is a person with a listed condition, such as autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability or traumatic brain injury, or a person who is substantially unable to protect themselves from harm or to provide food, shelter or medical care for themselves.
Section 6.01(c) says that a person who omits to perform an act does not commit an offense unless a law provides that the omission is an offense or provides a duty to perform the act. Section 22.04(b) supplies the duty for this offense. An omission is an offense only if the actor has a legal or statutory duty to act, or has assumed care, custody or control of the child, elderly individual or disabled individual. Criminal negligence is enough for an act but not for an omission.
The grade combines the result and the mental state. Serious bodily injury or serious mental injury is a first degree felony where the conduct is intentional or knowing and a second degree felony where it is reckless. Bodily injury is a third degree felony where intentional or knowing and a state jail felony where reckless. Any offense committed with criminal negligence is a state jail felony. The section also provides defenses, including reasonable medical care, discontinuing care after the required notice, and a defense where the actor did not know and could not reasonably have known that the victim was disabled.
Under section 22.041 it is an offense for a person with custody, care or control to intentionally abandon a child, elderly individual or disabled individual in a place that exposes them to an unreasonable risk of harm. The grade is a state jail felony with intent to return, a third degree felony without it, and a second degree felony where the circumstances would lead a reasonable person to believe the person was placed in imminent danger of death, bodily injury or physical or mental impairment. Endangerment is conduct that places such a person in imminent danger, and it is a state jail felony. Section 25.03 protects custody of a child younger than 18 and makes interference a state jail felony, with the three routes and defenses set out in the section.
Provisions this topic covers
- Tex. Penal Code secs. 22.04, 22.041 and 25.03
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