18 U.S.C. § 117
Section 117 · Domestic assault by an habitual offender
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 31 court decisions — leading case United States v. Bryant (2016)
Most recently applied in United States v. Veneno (March 2024)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Any person who commits a domestic assault within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or Indian country and who has a final conviction on at least 2 separate prior occasions in Federal, State, or Indian tribal court proceedings for offenses that would be, if subject to Federal jurisdiction—
any assault, sexual abuse, or serious violent felony against a spouse or intimate partner, or against a child of or in the care of the person committing the domestic assault; or
an offense under chapter 110A,
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for a term of not more than 5 years, or both, except that if substantial bodily injury results from violation under this section, the offender shall be imprisoned for a term of not more than 10 years.
In this section, the term “domestic assault” means an assault committed by a current or former spouse, parent, child, or guardian of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse, parent, child, or guardian, or by a person similarly situated to a spouse, parent, child, or guardian of the victim.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2014—Subsec. (a)(1). Pub. L. 113–104 inserted “, or against a child of or in the care of the person committing the domestic assault” after “intimate partner”.