Any person, sixteen years of age or older, who knowingly engages in sexual contact with another person, other than that person's spouse if the other person is under the age of sixteen years is guilty of a Class 3 felony. If the victim is at least thirteen years of age and the actor is less than five years older than the victim, the actor is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Notwithstanding § 23A-42-2, a charge brought pursuant to this section may be commenced at any time before the victim becomes age twenty-five or within seven years of the commission of the crime, whichever is longer.
S.D. Codified Laws § 22-22-7
Sexual contact with child under sixteen--Felony or misdemeanor
Applied in 105 court decisions — leading case Nachtigall v. Erickson (1970)
Most recently applied in State v. Waldner (November 2024)
Source: SL 1950 (SS), ch 3, §§ 1, 2; SL 1955, ch 27; SDC Supp 1960, § 13.1727; SDCL § 22-22-8; SL 1976, ch 158, § 22-3; SL 1977, ch 189, § 52; SL 1981, ch 176; SL 1982, ch 176, …
How often courts cite this section
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.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.