Florida Statute 800.04: Offenses, Registration, and Romeo and Juliet

Florida Statute 800.04 defines four lewd or lascivious offenses committed against or in the presence of a child under 16: battery, molestation, conduct, and exhibition. Every one of them is a felony. Penalties run from up to five years in prison for the least serious offense by a juvenile defendant to life imprisonment for an adult who molests a child under 12. Any conviction under the statute also triggers mandatory sex offender registration, and for many defendants a permanent firearm ban and, if they are not U.S. citizens, deportation.

What Consent and Age Mistakes Cannot Do

Two defenses that people reach for instinctively are blocked by the statute itself. The victim’s consent is not a defense, and neither is the victim’s prior sexual history. Florida treats a minor under 16 as legally incapable of consenting to these acts, so the question does not go to a jury.¹

Ignorance of the victim’s age is also barred. It does not matter if the child lied, produced a fake ID, or looked older. The offender carries the entire risk of misjudging a minor’s age.¹

Lewd or Lascivious Battery

Battery is the most serious offense in the statute. It covers sexual activity with a child who is at least 12 but younger than 16, where “sexual activity” means oral, anal, or genital penetration by a sexual organ, or penetration by any other object. The one carve-out is for acts performed for a legitimate medical purpose. Battery also covers encouraging, forcing, or enticing any child under 16 to engage in sexual activity, reaching a defendant who orchestrates the act without directly performing it.²

The base charge is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.³⁴ It becomes a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 30 years, when the defendant is 18 or older and has a prior conviction for a qualifying offense such as any previous violation of Section 800.04, sexual battery under Chapter 794, certain kidnapping offenses involving a minor, or child exploitation.¹

Lewd or Lascivious Molestation

Molestation is intentional, sexually motivated touching of a child’s breasts, genitals, genital area, or buttocks. Touching over clothing counts; skin contact is not required. The offense also covers forcing or enticing a child under 16 to touch the offender in the same way.²

Penalties depend on both the victim’s age and the defendant’s age:

Adult defendant, victim under 12: life felony. The sentence is either life in prison or a split sentence of at least 25 years in prison followed by lifetime probation. A second conviction in this category carries mandatory life.³
Juvenile defendant, victim under 12: second-degree felony, up to 15 years.
Adult defendant, victim 12 to 15: second-degree felony, up to 15 years.
Juvenile defendant, victim 12 to 15: third-degree felony, up to 5 years.
Adult defendant, victim 12 to 15, with a prior qualifying conviction: first-degree felony, up to 30 years.¹

The 25-year floor in the life-felony tier is a true minimum. Gain time and early release do not apply until it is served.

Lewd or Lascivious Conduct

Conduct sits between molestation and exhibition. It covers two situations: intentional, sexually motivated touching of a child under 16, or soliciting a child under 16 to commit a sexual act.²

The key difference from molestation is that conduct is not limited to touching specific body parts. Molestation requires contact with breasts, genitals, genital area, or buttocks. Conduct reaches other sexually motivated touching, and it reaches verbal solicitation where no touching occurs at all.

An adult defendant faces a second-degree felony (up to 15 years). A juvenile defendant faces a third-degree felony (up to 5 years).²

Lewd or Lascivious Exhibition

Exhibition is the non-contact offense. A person commits it by intentionally masturbating, intentionally exposing the genitals in a sexually motivated way, or committing any other sexual act not involving physical contact with the child, while in the presence of a victim under 16.² The crime is complete once the act happens in the child’s presence.

Penalties mirror conduct: second-degree felony for adult defendants, third-degree felony for juveniles.²

Sex Offender Registration

Every conviction under Section 800.04 triggers mandatory registration. The person must report in person within 48 hours of establishing a Florida residence or being released from custody, providing name, date of birth, Social Security number, physical description, home address, employer information, vehicle details, and a description of the conviction.⁵ Enrollment at any college or university must also be reported, and any change in that status must be reported within 48 hours. Failure to comply is itself a felony.

Sexual Predator Designation

Some defendants receive the more severe “sexual predator” classification. A conviction for a capital, life, or first-degree felony under Section 800.04 triggers automatic predator designation. So does any conviction under the statute where the defendant already has a prior qualifying sex offense.⁶

Predators face stricter reporting, more frequent verification, community notification, and specialized probation supervision. The designation is publicly searchable and comes with additional restrictions on where the person can live and work.

The Romeo and Juliet Petition

Florida allows a narrow group of young offenders to petition for removal from the registry. All of the following must be true:

The conviction is under Section 800.04, Section 827.071, or Section 847.0135(5), with no other qualifying sex offense convictions.
The offender was no more than four years older than the victim.
The victim was at least 13 but younger than 18 at the time of the offense.
The sexual act was consensual, notwithstanding the victim’s age.⁷

This is not a defense to the criminal charge and does not erase the conviction. It only allows a qualifying offender to ask a court, after the fact, to lift the registration requirement.

Federal Fallout

Because every offense under Section 800.04 is a felony, federal law permanently bars anyone convicted from possessing firearms or ammunition. The prohibition applies to any crime punishable by more than one year of imprisonment and lasts for life unless the conviction is pardoned or expunged, or civil rights are fully restored under state law.⁸ Florida rarely restores firearm rights automatically, so for most people the ban is effectively permanent.

For non-citizens, the immigration consequences can be worse than the sentence. Federal law classifies “sexual abuse of a minor” as an aggravated felony, and an aggravated felony conviction makes a non-citizen deportable with virtually no relief: no cancellation of removal, no asylum, and a permanent bar on returning to the United States.⁹ A plea that looks favorable on the criminal side can still guarantee deportation, so anyone without U.S. citizenship charged under this statute should get immigration counsel involved immediately.

Registration also extends beyond Florida. The federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act imposes its own tiered framework that determines verification frequency and duration:

Tier I: in-person verification once per year for 15 years.
Tier II: in-person verification every six months for 25 years.
Tier III: in-person verification every three months for life.¹⁰

SORNA also requires jurisdictions to share registration data with the National Sex Offender Registry, law enforcement, schools, public housing authorities, and the public through searchable websites with email notification.¹¹ A Florida conviction under Section 800.04 follows the person to every state.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 800.04 – Lewd or Lascivious Offenses Committed Upon or in the Presence of Persons Less Than 16 Years of Age
2
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 800.04 – Lewd or Lascivious Offenses
3
Florida Senate. Florida Code 775.082 – Penalties, Applicability of Sentencing Structures, Limitations
4
Florida Senate. Florida Code 775.083 – Fines
5
Florida Senate. Florida Code 943.0435 – Sexual Offenders Required to Register
6
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 775.21 – The Florida Sexual Predators Act
7
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 943.04354 – Removal of the Requirement to Register as a Sexual Offender or Sexual Predator
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 34 USC 20918 – Periodic In Person Verification
11
SMART Office. Community Notification Requirements of SORNA