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Ark. Code Ann. § 5-27-205

Endangering the welfare of a minor in the first degree

Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Morgan v. State (2009)

Most recently applied in 2021 Ark. App. 383 - Jonathan Daniel Welborn v. State of Arkansas (October 2021)

Acts 1975, No. 280, § 2407; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-2407; Acts 2001, No. 236, § 2; 2005, No. 2207, § 1; 2019, No. 185, § 1.

How often courts cite this section

199020002010202120
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.

(1) A person commits the offense of endangering the welfare of a minor in the first degree if, being a parent, guardian, person legally charged with care or custody of a minor, or a person charged with supervision of a minor, he or she purposely: Engages in conduct creating a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to a minor; or

(2) Deserts a minor less than ten (10) years old under circumstances creating a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury.

(3) Endangering the welfare of a minor in the first degree is a Class D felony.

(4) It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under this section that a parent voluntarily delivered a child to and left the child with, or voluntarily arranged for another person to deliver a child to and leave the child with, a medical provider, law enforcement agency, or fire department as provided in § 9-34-201 et seq.

(5) Subdivision (c)(1) of this section does not create a defense to any prosecution arising from any conduct other than the act of delivering a child as described in subdivision (c)(1) of this section.

(6) Subdivision (c)(1) of this section specifically does not constitute a defense to any prosecution arising from an act of abuse or neglect committed before the delivery of a child to a medical provider, law enforcement agency, or fire department as provided in § 9-34-201 et seq.

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.