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Ark. Code Ann. § 5-27-221

Permitting abuse of a minor

Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case Graham v. State (2006)

Most recently applied in Courtney Faye Anselmi v. State of Arkansas (October 2024)

Acts 1985, No. 990, §§ 1-3; A.S.A. 1947, §§ 41-2472 — 41-2474; Acts 1993, No. 1126, § 9; 2001, No. 1374, § 1; 2003, No. 1318, § 1.

How often courts cite this section

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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 permitting abuse of a minor if, being a parent, guardian, or person legally charged with the care or custody of a minor, he or she recklessly fails to take action to prevent the abuse of a minor.

(2) It is a defense to a prosecution for the offense of permitting abuse of a minor if the parent, guardian, or person legally charged with the care or custody of the minor takes immediate steps to end the abuse of the minor, including prompt notification of a medical or law enforcement authority, upon first knowing or having good reason to know that abuse has occurred.

(3) Permitting abuse of a minor is a: Class B felony if the abuse of the minor: Consisted of sexual intercourse;

(4) Consisted of deviate sexual activity; or

(5) Caused serious physical injury or death to the minor; or

(6) Class D felony if the abuse of the minor: Consisted of sexual contact; or

(7) Caused physical injury to the minor.

(8) As used in this section: “Abuse” means only sexual intercourse, deviate sexual activity, sexual contact, or causing physical injury, serious physical injury, or death, which could be prosecuted as a delinquent or criminal act; and

(9) “Minor” means a person under eighteen (18) years of age.

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.