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Ark. Code Ann. § 5-14-101

Definitions

Applied in 239 court decisions — leading case Brown v. State (2008)

Most recently applied in 2026 Ark. App. 171 - John Lang v. State of Arkansas (March 2026)

Acts 1975, No. 280, § 1801; 1985, No. 327, § 1; 1985, No. 563, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-1801; Acts 1995, No. 525, § 1; 2001, No. 1724, § 1; 2009, No. 748, § 7; 2017, No. 664, § 1.

How often courts cite this section

19892000201020202026180
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. 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.

As used in this chapter:

(1) “Deviate sexual activity” means any act of sexual gratification involving: The penetration, however slight, of the anus or mouth of a person by the penis of another person; or

(2) The penetration, however slight, of the labia majora or anus of a person by any body member or foreign instrument manipulated by another person;

(3) “Forcible compulsion” means physical force or a threat, express or implied, of death or physical injury to or kidnapping of any person;

(4) “Guardian” means a parent, stepparent, legal guardian, legal custodian, foster parent, or any person who by virtue of a living arrangement is placed in an apparent position of power or authority over a minor;

(5) “Mentally defective” means that a person suffers from a mental disease or defect that renders the person: Incapable of understanding the nature and consequences of a sexual act; or

(6) Unaware a sexual act is occurring.

(7) A determination that a person is mentally defective shall not be based solely on the person's intelligence quotient;

(8) “Mentally incapacitated” means that a person is temporarily incapable of appreciating or controlling the person's conduct as a result of the influence of a controlled or intoxicating substance: Administered to the person without the person's consent; or

(9) That renders the person unaware a sexual act is occurring;

(10) “Minor” means a person who is less than eighteen (18) years of age;

(11) “Physically helpless” means that a person is: Unconscious;

(12) Physically unable to communicate a lack of consent; or

(13) Rendered unaware a sexual act is occurring;

(14) “Public place” means a publicly or privately owned place to which the public or a substantial number of people have access;

(15) “Public view” means observable or likely to be observed by a person in a public place;

(16) “Recording” includes without limitation an image or video;

(17) “Sexual contact” means any act of sexual gratification involving the touching, directly or through clothing, of the sex organs, buttocks, or anus of a person or the breast of a female;

(18) “Sexual intercourse” means penetration, however slight, of the labia majora by a penis;

(19) “Sexually explicit conduct” means the same as defined in § 5-27-302; and

(20) “State of nudity” means the same as defined in § 5-26-302.

Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.