Child abuse in Tulsa Oklahoma is a serious crime for which you may serve up to life in prison and lose access to your child. In Tulsa, you can be charged for permitting child abuse even if you were not the one actually abusing the child.
An affirmative defense to child abuse is the reasonable apprehension that any action to stop the abuse would result in substantial bodily harm to the defendant or the child. Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 852.1
Defining Child Abuse in Tulsa Oklahoma
A child in Oklahoma is anyone under the age of 18.
Child abuse in Tulsa Oklahoma is the willful or malicious harm or threatened harm or failure to protect from harm or threatened harm to the health, safety, or welfare of a child.
Child abuse also includes the act of willfully or maliciously injuring, torturing, or maiming a child. The injury can be physical, mental, emotional, or sexual.
The law in Oklahoma does not prohibit ordinary force by a parent used to discipline a child including spanking, switching, or paddling.
In order to be considered abuse, the act must be willful or malicious and not accidental.
Enabling Child Abuse in Oklahoma
A person who is in charge of the child’s welfare who knowingly permits abuse can also be charged with the separate crime of permitting child abuse by injury even though he/she did not participate in the act itself. It is enough that the defendant failed to intervene or to protect the child from harm.
Abuse is defined as actual harm or threatened harm or failure to protect from harm or threatened harm.
Harm or threatened harm to the health or safety of a child is any real or threatened physical, mental, or emotional injury or damage to the body or mind that is not accidental.
Child sexual abuse, enabling sexual abuse, and the sexual exploitation of a child are all sex crime felonies in Tulsa. Permitting sexual abuse occurs when the adult in charge of the welfare of the child knows or reasonably should know that the child will be placed at risk of sexual abuse.
Child sexual abuse means the willful or malicious sexual abuse, which includes but is not limited to rape, incest, and lewd or indecent acts or proposals, of a child under 18 years of age by another.
Enabling child sexual abuse is defined as the causing, procuring, or permitting of a willful or malicious act of child sexual abuse, which includes but is not limited to rape, incest, and lewd or indecent acts or proposals, of a child under the age of 18 by another.
Child sexual exploitation is defined as the willful or malicious sexual exploitation, which includes but is not limited to allowing, permitting, or encouraging a child under 18 years of age to engage in prostitution or allowing, permitting, encouraging, or engaging in the lewd, obscene, or pornographic photographing, filming, or depicting of a child under 18 years of age by another. Okla. Stat. tit. 21 § 843.5
Penalties for Child Abuse in Tulsa Oklahoma
Child abuse by injury is a felony punishable by up to life imprisonment or imprisonment in a county jail for up to a year or a fine between $500 and $5,000. Fines combined with jail or prison time are also possible consequences.
Intervention and removal of the child from the custody of the person permitting the abuse is also possible in order to protect the child. A conviction of child sexual abuse can also lead to the termination of parental rights and the duty to register as a sex offender.
Child sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation, or enabling child sexual abuse shall, upon conviction, be classified as a felony punishable up to life imprisonment and a fine of $500 to $5,000. If the victim was under 12 years of age, it is punishable by a minimum of five years to life imprisonment, and by a fine of $500 to $5,000.
A subsequent conviction of forcible anal or oral sodomy, rape, rape by instrumentation, or lewd molestation of a child under 14 years old is punishable by death or by imprisonment for life without parole.
Oklahoma’s Child Abuse Reporting Laws
Oklahoma law imposes upon all health care professionals, teachers, and others an obligation to report in good faith all suspected instances of child abuse to the Department of Human Services.
Anyone acting in good faith and exercising due care in reporting child abuse has immunity from any civil or criminal liability.
Failure to report child abuse or the making of a false report is a misdemeanor crime.
Free Consultation: Tulsa Criminal Defense Attorney
If you or someone you know is accused of child abuse in Oklahoma, please contact a Tulsa criminal defense attorney to discuss your available legal options.
Consult with an experienced attorney at Wirth Law Office – Tulsa today by calling 918-756-9600 or toll free at 1-888-447-7262.
You can also send a question or brief message through this website.