Child Abuse Crimes

Child Abuse crimes in Texas are primarily sexual or assaultive type crimes. Some other child abuse crimes do not fall perfectly into those categories and typically concern a failure of an adult to take certain actions for the child in question.

This list also includes “status” offenses, meaning that the prohibited behavior is illegal only because of the age or other status of the individual. For instance, you can be charged with Sexual Assault if you have consensual sex with a child (this is known as Statutory Rape).

What are the child abuse crimes in Texas?

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

• PC 15.031 – Criminal Solicitation of a Minor
• PC 15.032 – Child Grooming *effective September 1, 2023
• 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 22.011(a)(2) – Sexual Assault of a Child
• PC 22.021(a)(1)(B) – Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child
• PC 22.04 – Injury to a Child, Elderly Individual, or Disabled 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.

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