Texas Penal Code 22.04: Penalties, Probation & Defenses

Texas Penal Code Section 22.04 makes it a felony to cause injury to a child, an elderly person, or a disabled individual, whether the harm comes from a direct act or from failing to act when you had a duty to do so. Depending on the defendant’s mental state and the severity of the victim’s injury, a conviction can range from a state jail felony to a first-degree felony punishable by 5 to 99 years or life in prison.¹ The statute also carries probation restrictions, a long statute of limitations for child victims, and a separate, broader offense for people who work in care facilities.

Who the Law Protects

Section 22.04 covers three categories of victims. A child is anyone 14 or younger. An elderly individual is anyone 65 or older, regardless of their health or living situation. A disabled individual is anyone with autism spectrum disorder, a developmental or intellectual disability, a severe emotional disturbance, a traumatic brain injury, or a mental illness. The disabled category also reaches anyone who, because of age or a physical or mental condition, cannot realistically protect themselves or meet their own basic needs for food, shelter, or medical care.¹

That last clause is the one prosecutors most often use to reach adults who do not fit a specific diagnosis but are plainly vulnerable. If someone cannot feed themselves, get medical help, or avoid danger on their own, the statute treats them as a protected person.

Acts, Omissions, and the Four Mental States

The offense can be committed by doing something to the victim or by failing to do something you were obligated to do. Four mental states apply:

Intentionally — the person’s conscious objective was to cause the injury.
Knowingly — the person was aware their conduct was reasonably certain to cause it.
Recklessly — the person recognized a substantial risk and disregarded it.
With criminal negligence — the person should have recognized the risk but did not.

All four apply to affirmative acts. For omissions under the general provision, only the first three apply. You cannot be convicted of injury by criminal negligence through failing to act unless you are charged under the separate care facility offense.¹

When Doing Nothing Becomes Criminal

Failing to act is only criminal if you had a duty. That duty arises when the law or a court order requires action, or when you have assumed care of the victim. Section 22.04(d) defines assumed care broadly: if your actions, words, or pattern of behavior would lead a reasonable person to conclude you had taken on responsibility for protecting, feeding, sheltering, or providing medical care, that is enough.¹

No formal guardianship or written agreement is required. A live-in partner who regularly feeds and bathes a child, or a relative who has been looking after an elderly parent for months, has assumed care in the eyes of the statute. Walking away from that responsibility and allowing serious harm to occur can be prosecuted the same as inflicting it directly.

Care Facility Employees Face a Broader Rule

Section 22.04(a-1) creates a distinct offense for owners, operators, and employees of group homes, nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, boarding home facilities, and intermediate care facilities for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. For these defendants, an omission can be charged even when the mental state was only criminal negligence. The statute also presumes that facility staff have assumed care, custody, and control of every resident during their work hours, so arguing a particular resident “wasn’t my responsibility” during a shift will not work.¹

Penalties by Mental State and Injury Level

The severity of the charge is set by two variables: how badly the victim was hurt and what the defendant’s mental state was. Three injury categories matter. Bodily injury means physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition, so a bruise or cut qualifies. Serious bodily injury requires a substantial risk of death, permanent disfigurement, or long-term loss or impairment of a bodily function or organ.² Serious mental harm is a significant decline in psychological or cognitive functioning, usually established through professional evaluations, and it is punished the same as serious bodily injury.

State Jail Felony: 180 Days to 2 Years

Several combinations fall at the state jail felony level, which carries 180 days to 2 years in a state jail facility and a fine of up to $10,000:⁶

Recklessly causing ordinary bodily injury.
Criminal negligence causing any level of harm under the general provision, whether the result was bodily injury, serious bodily injury, or serious mental harm.
Care facility employees who cause any level of harm by criminal negligence through omission.

Once the mental state drops to criminal negligence under the general provision, the offense is a state jail felony no matter how severe the outcome. A negligent act that leaves a child with permanent brain damage is graded the same way as one that leaves a bruise.¹

Probation Is Restricted for the Most Serious Cases

Texas law bars judges from granting community supervision when the offense is a first-degree felony injury to a child under Section 22.04. Jury-recommended probation may still be an option, but the restriction on judge-ordered probation means most defendants convicted at this level will serve prison time.⁷

How Long Prosecutors Have to File Charges

The limitations period depends on who the victim is and how serious the offense is:

If the victim is a child, the state has until 10 years after the child’s 18th birthday, effectively until the victim turns 28, regardless of felony level.
If the victim is elderly or disabled and the offense is a first-degree felony, the state has 10 years from the date of the offense.
If the victim is elderly or disabled and the offense is any lower felony level, the state has 5 years from the date of the offense.

The longer window for child victims reflects how often abuse goes unreported until the victim reaches adulthood.⁸

Parental Discipline as a Defense

Texas Penal Code Section 9.61 allows a parent, stepparent, or guardian to use non-deadly force against a child younger than 18 when they reasonably believe the force is necessary to discipline the child or promote the child’s welfare. The defense also extends to grandparents, people acting under a court’s direction, and anyone acting with the express or implied consent of the parent, which can bring in teachers, coaches, and babysitters.⁹

The limits are real. The force must be reasonable in degree, deadly force is never justified, and the reasonableness standard is scrutinized more heavily when the person using force is not the biological parent. A parent whose discipline leaves welts or bruises amounting to bodily injury will face a hard fight arguing the force was reasonable.

Mandatory Reporting Can Produce Its Own Charges

Anyone in Texas with reasonable cause to believe a child has been abused or neglected must report it immediately. The duty applies to every person, not just professionals. Teachers, nurses, doctors, daycare employees, juvenile probation officers, and others who are licensed by the state and have direct contact with children must report within 48 hours of first suspecting abuse or neglect, and the duty overrides professional privilege: attorneys, clergy, medical practitioners, social workers, and mental health professionals cannot invoke confidentiality to stay silent.¹⁰

Failing to report is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $4,000. It escalates to a state jail felony if the victim had an intellectual disability and lived in a state-supported facility and the person who failed to report knew the victim had suffered serious bodily injury, or if the failure to report was intended to conceal the abuse.¹¹

1
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 22.04 – Injury to a Child, Elderly Individual, or Disabled Individual
2
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 1.07 – Definitions
3
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.32 – First Degree Felony Punishment
4
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.33 – Second Degree Felony Punishment
5
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.34 – Third Degree Felony Punishment
6
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.35 – State Jail Felony Punishment
7
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 42A.054
8
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 12.01 – Felonies
9
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 9.61 – Parent-Child
10
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 261.101 – Persons Required to Report
11
State of Texas. Texas Family Code Section 261.109 – Failure to Report