Child Abuse Crimes

Child Abuse crimes in Texas primarily fall into either a sexual or assaultive sub-category. Some, however, do not fall neatly into those categories. These typically require a heightened duty to care for the child in question.

The list below does not include some offenses that, although they may be child abuse in some instances, are primarily in a different category. For instance, you can be charged with Sexual Assault if you have consensual sex with a child (this is known as Statutory Rape), even though sexual assault is typically a crime involving adults.

The list below contains each of the Child Abuse offenses in Texas

• PC 15.031 – Criminal Solicitation of a Minor
• PC 21.02 – Continuous Sexual Abuse of Young Child or Children
• PC 21.11 – Indecency With a Child (Child Molestation)
• PC 21.12 – Improper Relationship Between Educator and Student
• PC 22.04 – Injury to a Child, Elderly Individual, or Disable Individual
• PC 22.041 – Abandoning or Endangering Child
• PC 22.10 – Leaving a Child in a Vehicle
• PC 25.031 – Agreement to Abduct from Custody
• PC 25.06 – Harboring Runaway Child
• PC 33.021 – Online Solicitation of a Minor*
• PC 38.17 – Failure to Stop or Report Aggravated Sexual Assault of Child
• Pc 43.24 – Sale, Distribution, or Display of Harmful Material to Minor
• PC 43.25 – Sexual Performance by a Child
• PC 43.251 – Employment Harmful to Children
• PC 43.26 – Possession or Promotion of Child Pornography
• PC 43.261 – Electronic Transmission of Certain Visual Material Depicting Minor (the law covering “sexting” between minors)
• PC 43.262 – Possession or Promotion of Lewd Visual Material Depicting Child *effective September 1, 2017

*The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that one subsection of the Online Solicitation of a Minor offense, 33.021(b), as it was written at the time, was unconstitutional.