Title PEN, California Penal Code

The Courts and magistrates before whom such proceedings are prosecuted may issue subpoenas for witnesses, and punish their disobedience in the same manner as in a criminal action. (Enacted 1872.)

Every person who files a petition for an ex parte gun violence restraining order pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 18150) or a gun violence restraining order issued after notice and a hearing pursuant to Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 18170), knowing the informat…

(a) Every person who owns or possesses a firearm or ammunition with knowledge that they are prohibited from doing so by a temporary emergency gun violence restraining order issued pursuant to Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 18125), an ex parte gun violence restraining order is…

Every person who does any of the following with a switchblade knife having a blade two or more inches in length is guilty of a misdemeanor: (a) Possesses the knife in the passenger’s or driver’s area of any motor vehicle in any public place or place open to the public. (b) Carrie…

The unlawful possession or carrying of any switchblade knife, as provided in Section 21510, is a nuisance and is subject to Sections 18000 and 18005. (Added by Stats. 2010, Ch. 711, Sec. 6. (SB 1080) Effective January 1, 2011. Operative January 1, 2012, by Sec. 10 of Ch. 711.)

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), every person who commits any assault upon the President or Vice President of the United States, the Governor of any state or territory, any justice, judge, or former judge of any local, state, or federal court of record, any commissioner…

Every person who unlawfully throws out a switch, removes a rail, or places any obstruction on any railroad with the intention of derailing any passenger, freight or other train, car or engine, or who unlawfully places any dynamite or other explosive material or any other obstruct…

Any person who unlawfully and with gross negligence places or causes to be placed any obstruction upon or near the track of any railroad that proximately results in either the damaging or derailing of any passenger, freight, or other train, or injures a rail passenger or employee…

Every person who unlawfully throws out a switch, removes a rail, or places any obstruction on any railroad with the intention of derailing any passenger, freight or other train, car or engine and thus derails the same, or who unlawfully places any dynamite or other explosive mate…

Every person who unlawfully throws, hurls or projects at a vehicle operated by a common carrier, while such vehicle is either in motion or stationary, any rock, stone, brick, bottle, piece of wood or metal or any other missile of any kind or character, or does any unlawful act, w…

Every person who willfully throws, hurls, or projects a stone or other hard substance, or shoots a missile, at a train, locomotive, railway car, caboose, cable railway car, street railway car, or bus or at a steam vessel or watercraft used for carrying passengers or freight on an…

Any person who wilfully drops or throws any object or missile from any toll bridge is guilty of a misdemeanor. (Added by Stats. 1957, Ch. 1053.)

Except as provided in Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 17700) of Division 2 of Title 2, any person in this state who manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives, lends, or possesses any firearm n…

Except as provided in Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 17700) of Division 2 of Title 2, any firearm not immediately recognizable as a firearm is a nuisance and is subject to Section 18010. (Added by Stats. 2010, Ch. 711, Sec. 6. (SB 1080) Effective January 1, 2011. Operative Ja…

(a) Any peace officer listed in Section 830.1 or 830.2 or subdivision (c) of Section 830.5 who retired prior to January 1, 1981, is authorized to carry a concealed and loaded firearm if the agency issued the officer an identification certificate and the certificate has not been s…

(a) No peace officer who is retired after January 1, 1989, because of a psychological disability shall be issued an endorsement to carry a concealed and loaded firearm pursuant to this article. (b) A retired peace officer may have the privilege to carry a concealed and loaded fir…

(a) Issuance of an identification certificate authorizing the officer to carry a concealed and loaded firearm or an endorsement may be denied prior to a hearing. (b) If a hearing is not conducted prior to the denial of an endorsement, a retired peace officer, within 15 days of th…

(a) Notice of a temporary revocation shall be effective upon personal service or upon receipt of a notice that was sent by first-class mail, postage prepaid, return receipt requested, to the retiree’s last known place of residence. (b) The retiree shall have 15 days to respond to…

(a) An identification certificate authorizing the officer to carry a concealed and loaded firearm or an endorsement may be permanently revoked only after a hearing, as specified in Section 26320. (b) Any retired peace officer whose identification certificate authorizing the offic…

(a) Any hearing conducted under this article shall be held before a three-member hearing board. One member of the board shall be selected by the agency and one member shall be selected by the retired peace officer or his or her employee organization. The third member shall be sel…

(a) A retired peace officer, when notified of the revocation of the privilege to carry a concealed and loaded firearm, after the hearing, or upon forfeiting the right to a hearing, shall immediately surrender to the issuing agency the officer’s identification certificate. (b) The…

(a) A law enforcement agency may require a retiring or a retired peace officer seeking an endorsement on the officer’s identification certificate stating that the issuing agency approves the officer’s carrying of a concealed firearm, as described in Chapter 2 (commencing with Sec…

(a) A person shall complete any sale, loan, or transfer of a firearm through a person licensed pursuant to Sections 26700 to 26915, inclusive, in accordance with this chapter in order to comply with Section 27545. (b) The seller or transferor or the person loaning the firearm sha…

(a) For a sale, loan, or transfer conducted pursuant to this chapter, the purchaser or transferee or person being loaned the firearm may be required by the dealer to pay a fee not to exceed ten dollars ($10) per firearm. (b) For temporary storage of a firearm pursuant to subdivis…

The Attorney General shall adopt regulations under this chapter to do all of the following: (a) Allow the seller or transferor or the person loaning the firearm, and the purchaser or transferee or the person being loaned the firearm, to complete a sale, loan, or transfer through …

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a dealer who does not sell, transfer, or keep an inventory of handguns is not required to process private party transfers of handguns. (Added by Stats. 2010, Ch. 711, Sec. 6. (SB 1080) Effective January 1, 2011. Operative January 1, 201…

A violation of this chapter by a dealer is a misdemeanor. (Added by Stats. 2010, Ch. 711, Sec. 6. (SB 1080) Effective January 1, 2011. Operative January 1, 2012, by Sec. 10 of Ch. 711.)

(a) Every person having a spouse living, who marries or enters into a registered domestic partnership with any other person, except in the cases specified in Section 282, is guilty of bigamy. (b) Upon a trial for bigamy, it is not necessary to prove either of the marriages or reg…

Section 281 does not extend to any of the following: (a) To any person by reason of any former marriage or former registered domestic partnership whose spouse by such marriage or registered domestic partnership has been absent for five successive years without being known to such…

Bigamy is punishable by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year or in the state prison. (Amended by Stats. 1983, Ch. 1092, Sec. 264. Effective September 27, 1983. Operative January 1, 1984, by Sec. 427 of Ch. …

Every person who knowingly and willfully marries or enters into a registered domestic partnership with the spouse of another, in any case in which such spouse would be punishable under the provisions of this chapter, is punishable by a fine not less than five thousand dollars ($5…

Persons being within the degrees of consanguinity within which marriages are declared by law to be incestuous and void, who intermarry with each other, or who being 14 years of age or older, commit fornication or adultery with each other, are punishable by imprisonment in the sta…

(a) Sodomy is sexual conduct consisting of contact between the penis of one person and the anus of another person. Any sexual penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the crime of sodomy. (b) (1) Except as provided in Section 288, any person who participates in an a…

(a) Every person who has sexual contact with an animal is guilty of a misdemeanor. (b) This section does not apply to any lawful and accepted practice related to veterinary medicine performed by a licensed veterinarian or a certified veterinary technician under the guidance of a …

(a) Oral copulation is the act of copulating the mouth of one person with the sexual organ or anus of another person. (b) (1) Except as provided in Section 288, any person who participates in an act of oral copulation with another person who is under 18 years of age shall be puni…

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (i), a person who willfully and lewdly commits any lewd or lascivious act, including any of the acts constituting other crimes provided for in Part 1, upon or with the body, or any part or member thereof, of a child who is under the age of 14…

Any person convicted of committing any lewd or lascivious act including any of the acts constituting other crimes provided for in Part 1 of this code upon or with the body, or any part or member thereof, of a child under the age of 14 years shall not have his or her sentence susp…

(a) (1) Every person who knows, should have known, or believes that another person is a minor, and who knowingly distributes, sends, causes to be sent, exhibits, or offers to distribute or exhibit by any means, including by physical delivery, telephone, electronic communication, …

(a) Every person who contacts or communicates with a minor, or attempts to contact or communicate with a minor, who knows or reasonably should know that the person is a minor, with intent to commit an offense specified in Section 207, 209, 261, 264.1, 273a, 286, 287, 288, 288.2, …

(a) (1) Every person who, motivated by an unnatural or abnormal sexual interest in children, arranges a meeting with a minor or a person he or she believes to be a minor for the purpose of exposing his or her genitals or pubic or rectal area, having the child expose his or her ge…

(a) Any person who either resides in the same home with the minor child or has recurring access to the child, who over a period of time, not less than three months in duration, engages in three or more acts of substantial sexual conduct with a child under the age of 14 years at t…

(a) Any person 18 years of age or older who engages in sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child who is 10 years of age or younger is guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of 25 years to life. (b) Any person 18 years of age or old…

(a) (1) (A) Any person who commits an act of sexual penetration when the act is accomplished against the victim’s will by means of force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person shall be punished by imprisonment in…

(a) Every person who flees to this state with the intent to avoid prosecution for an offense which, if committed or attempted in this state, would have been punishable as one or more of the offenses described in subdivision (c) of Section 290, and who has been charged with that o…

(a) (1) An employee or officer of a public entity health facility, or an employee, officer, or agent of a private person or entity that provides a health facility or staff for a health facility under contract with a public entity, who engages in sexual activity with a consenting …

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shall do all of the following: (a) Create a Female Offender Reform Master Plan, and shall present this plan to the Legislature by March 1, 2008. (b) Create policies and operational practices that are designed to ensure a safe and p…