Texas Family Code Section 71.004 defines family violence as three categories of conduct between people in specific relationships: intentional harmful or threatening acts between family or household members, child abuse committed by a family or household member against a child in that family or household, and dating violence as separately defined in Section 71.0021.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code 71.004 – Family Violence The statute explicitly excludes defensive measures a person takes to protect themselves. The definition controls who qualifies for a protective order, how a court weighs custody questions, and whether federal firearms and immigration consequences attach to a Texas case.
The First Category: Harmful or Threatening Acts
Section 71.004(1) covers any act by a family or household member against another family or household member that is intended to result in physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code 71.004 – Family Violence Intent is central. The court looks at what the person meant to do, not simply at the outcome. An accidental bump during an argument would not qualify; deliberately shoving someone into a wall would.
Physical contact is not required. A threat that reasonably places someone in fear of imminent physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault also meets the definition.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code 71.004 – Family Violence The fear has to be reasonable and the threat has to be imminent. Saying “I’ll hurt you right now” while advancing on a spouse is different from a vague remark about some future possibility.
The Self-Defense Carve-Out
Section 71.004(1) explicitly excludes “defensive measures to protect oneself” from the definition.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code 71.004 – Family Violence Domestic conflicts often involve force by both people, and the statute is written to separate the aggressor from the person reacting to protect themselves. Pushing an attacker away is not family violence under this section.
The same exclusion appears in the dating violence definition at Section 71.0021, so self-defense is not family violence in either context.2State of Texas. Texas Family Code 71.0021 – Dating Violence When both sides claim the other started it, the judge decides whose actions were genuinely defensive based on the evidence presented.
The Second Category: Child Abuse
Section 71.004(2) treats certain forms of child abuse as family violence when the abuser is a family or household member and the child is part of that same family or household.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code 71.004 – Family Violence Rather than defining abuse itself, the subsection points to specific paragraphs of Section 261.001.
Those referenced categories include physical injury that causes substantial harm to the child, sexual conduct harmful to the child’s welfare, exposing a child to sexual exploitation or pornography, and allowing a child to use a controlled substance.3State of Texas. Texas Family Code 261.001 – Definitions Because 71.004 incorporates these definitions by reference, a finding of child abuse under Chapter 261 can simultaneously trigger the family violence consequences that run through Chapter 71, including protective orders and custody restrictions.
The Third Category: Dating Violence
Section 71.004(3) brings dating violence into the family violence definition by referencing Section 71.0021.1State of Texas. Texas Family Code 71.004 – Family Violence Dating violence covers the same harmful or threatening conduct described in the first category, but applies to people in a current or former romantic relationship rather than family or household members.
A “dating relationship” requires an ongoing connection of a romantic or intimate nature. Courts weigh how long the relationship lasted, the nature of the interactions, and how often the people had contact. One date or a few casual encounters will not qualify. The statute specifically says that a casual acquaintanceship or ordinary socializing in a business or professional context is not a dating relationship.2State of Texas. Texas Family Code 71.0021 – Dating Violence
Dating violence also reaches acts committed against someone because that person is married to or in a dating relationship with the actor’s current or former partner.2State of Texas. Texas Family Code 71.0021 – Dating Violence Conduct driven by jealousy toward a new partner falls inside the definition.
Who Counts as Family or Household
The first two categories of 71.004 only apply when the people involved stand in a specific type of relationship, drawn from three separate definitions in Chapter 71.
“Family” under Section 71.003 includes people related by blood or marriage, former spouses, parents who share a child whether or not they were ever married, and foster children and foster parents.4State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 71 – Definitions The foster relationship is included on the same footing as biological family, so violence between a foster parent and foster child carries the same legal weight.
“Household” under Section 71.005 means people who live together in the same dwelling, whether or not they are related. Section 71.006 extends the definition to people who used to live together.4State of Texas. Texas Family Code Chapter 71 – Definitions A former roommate remains covered after moving out, which prevents someone from escaping the statute by leaving a shared home after an incident.
What a Family Violence Finding Triggers
Whether conduct meets the Section 71.004 definition is the gateway question for several very different legal consequences. The same definition reaches across civil protective order law, custody disputes, and federal law.
Protective Orders
A family violence finding under 71.004 opens the door to a protective order under Title 4 of the Family Code. Adult family or household members can file to protect themselves or another member of their family or household. Adults in a dating relationship can file on their own behalf, and any adult can file to protect a child from family violence. A prosecuting attorney or the Department of Family and Protective Services can also file on behalf of an alleged victim.5State of Texas. Texas Family Code 82.002 – Standing
Where a judge finds a clear and present danger of family violence, the court can issue a temporary ex parte order lasting up to 20 days without a prior hearing, extendable for additional 20-day periods.6Texas State Law Library. Protective Orders A final protective order issued after a hearing can last up to two years, and longer in specified circumstances involving serious bodily injury or repeat orders.
Child Custody
A family violence finding reshapes custody. Section 153.004 requires courts to consider any history of family violence when deciding whether to restrict a parent’s access to a child. Texas normally presumes that joint managing conservatorship serves the child’s best interest, but a credible showing of family violence can rebut that presumption and lead to one parent being named sole managing conservator. Courts may also order supervised visitation, limiting a parent to seeing a child only in the presence of a court-approved supervisor, at set times, and in designated locations.
Federal Firearms Ban
Federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from possessing a firearm or ammunition.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts The ban is permanent. It applies even when the Texas conviction was treated as a minor offense. A Class A misdemeanor assault conviction involving a spouse or household member can trigger a lifelong federal firearms disability, and possessing a gun in violation of that ban is itself a separate federal felony.
Immigration
A domestic violence conviction can make a lawful permanent resident deportable. Federal immigration law lists crimes of domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, child neglect, and certain protective order violations as independent grounds for removal. A protective order violation is an independent deportation ground when a court determines the person engaged in conduct that threatened violence or caused bodily injury.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens For a non-citizen, a Texas case that ends in probation in criminal court can still produce removal proceedings.
Why the Definition Matters
Section 71.004 is a short statute that controls a lot. Whether an incident fits inside the three categories, and whether the people involved fit the family, household, or dating relationship definitions in the surrounding sections, decides whether any of the downstream consequences attach at all. The intent requirement, the self-defense exclusion, and the specific relationship categories are each worth reading closely before concluding that a given situation does, or does not, fall within the statute.