Texas Sexual Assault Laws: Penalties, Deadlines & Registry

Texas sexual assault laws treat the offense as a felony carrying 2 to 99 years or life in prison, require lifetime sex offender registration for most convictions, and set no time limit on prosecuting sexual assault of a child or cases with untested DNA evidence. The rules live mainly in Chapter 22 of the Penal Code, with related provisions on continuous abuse, registration, and civil suits scattered across other codes.

What Sexual Assault Means Under Texas Law

Section 22.011 of the Penal Code defines sexual assault as intentionally or knowingly causing penetration of another person’s anus or sexual organ by any means, penetration of the mouth by the actor’s sexual organ, or contact between the actor’s mouth, anus, or sexual organ and the other person’s sexual organ, all without that person’s consent.¹

When the other person is a child, the same conduct is a separate category of the offense. The prosecution does not have to prove force or lack of consent, because a child cannot legally consent, and it does not have to prove the actor knew the child’s age. A mistaken belief about age is not a defense.¹ The statute defines “child” as anyone younger than 17.

When Consent Is Legally Absent

The clearest case is physical force or a threat of violence the victim believes the actor can carry out. But Section 22.011(b) reaches much further. Consent is legally impossible when the actor knows the other person is:

Unconscious or physically unable to resist.
Unaware the assault is occurring, for example while asleep or sedated.
Too intoxicated or impaired by any substance to meaningfully agree, whether or not the victim took the substance voluntarily.
Incapable of understanding the act because of a mental disease or defect.

Consent also fails as a matter of law in certain relationships of authority or trust. A public servant who coerces sexual activity, a mental health or healthcare provider who exploits a patient’s emotional dependency, or a member of the clergy who leverages that professional relationship to obtain sexual contact all fall within the statute.¹ Apparent compliance in those situations is treated as legally meaningless.

Aggravated Sexual Assault

Section 22.021 elevates the charge when certain circumstances surround the offense. The aggravating factors fall into three groups.²

Violence, Weapons, and Threats

The offense becomes aggravated when the actor causes serious bodily injury, attempts to kill the victim during the same criminal episode, uses or displays a deadly weapon such as a firearm or knife, or places the victim in fear of imminent death, serious injury, kidnapping, or human trafficking. The weapon does not have to be used to injure anyone; displaying it is enough.²

Impairing Substances and Multiple Actors

Administering any substance to the victim to impair their ability to resist or understand what is happening automatically aggravates the offense. Any substance capable of doing that qualifies. If two or more people participate in the assault of the same victim during the same episode, each participant faces the aggravated charge.²

Vulnerable Victims

The charge is aggravated whenever the victim is younger than 14, elderly, or disabled. In these cases the victim’s vulnerability alone is enough; no separate showing of force or weapon is required.²

Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Young Child

Section 21.02 creates a separate offense for repeated abuse. A person commits continuous sexual abuse by committing two or more acts of sexual abuse over a period of 30 or more days, when the actor is at least 17 and the victim is under 14 or is a disabled individual. Qualifying acts include sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, indecency with a child, sexual performance by a child, and certain trafficking offenses.³

This is a first-degree felony carrying a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of 99 years or life, with no probation and no deferred adjudication available.³

Age of Consent and the Close-in-Age Defense

Texas generally sets the age of consent at 17. The exact threshold varies slightly by statute, with some offenses using 18, but the Penal Code’s sexual assault provisions draw the line at 17.⁴ Sexual contact with anyone younger than 17 is an offense regardless of whether the younger person appeared willing.

Section 22.011(e) provides a narrow affirmative defense sometimes called the Romeo and Juliet provision. All of the following must be true:

The actor was no more than three years older than the victim.
The victim was at least 14.
The actor was not required to register for life as a sex offender and had no prior sexual assault conviction.
The actor and victim were not related in a way that would prohibit marriage under Texas law.

The defendant carries the burden of proving each element at trial, and raising the defense does not prevent arrest or charges from being filed.¹ The defense applies only to sexual assault of a child under subsection (a)(2). It has no application to aggravated sexual assault.

Prison Time and Fines

The punishment range depends on the offense and the victim’s age:

Sexual assault is a second-degree felony carrying 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.⁵
Aggravated sexual assault is a first-degree felony carrying 5 to 99 years or life, with a fine of up to $10,000.⁶
Aggravated sexual assault of a child under 6, or of a child under 14 combined with another aggravating factor, carries a 25-year minimum, up to 99 years or life.²
Continuous sexual abuse of a young child carries 25 to 99 years or life.³

The 25-year floor under Section 22.021(f) catches many people off guard. A person sentenced under that provision is not eligible for parole until they have served at least half of the sentence or 25 years, whichever is greater.²

How Long Charges Can Be Filed

Article 12.01 of the Code of Criminal Procedure removes any time limit for several categories of sexual assault. Charges can be brought at any point during the offender’s lifetime for:

Sexual assault of a child (any victim under 17).
Aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Sexual assault cases where biological evidence was collected but has not been DNA-tested, or where testing produced results that do not match any identified person.
Sexual assault cases where probable cause exists to believe the defendant committed the same or a similar offense against five or more victims.

For sexual assault of an adult that falls outside those categories, the deadline is 10 years from the date of the offense. The DNA exception matters in practice: an untested kit sitting in storage means the clock never starts running.⁷

Sex Offender Registration

Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires anyone convicted of sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, or continuous sexual abuse of a child to register with local law enforcement. How often the person must verify their information depends on the offense. Those with the most serious reporting requirements appear in person at least once every 90 days. Others verify annually within 30 days before or after their birthday. For sexually violent offenses, registration lasts for life.⁸

Failing to register or keep information current is itself a felony, ranging from a state jail felony up to a second-degree felony depending on the underlying reporting requirement. A prior conviction for failure to register bumps the penalty up to the next higher felony degree.⁹ Texas maintains a publicly searchable database, and local law enforcement may notify schools and neighbors about registrants in the area.

Civil Lawsuits by Survivors

A criminal case is not the only route. Section 16.0045 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code lets survivors sue the person who assaulted them for financial compensation.

If the offense was committed against a child, including sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, continuous sexual abuse, indecency with a child, or certain trafficking offenses, the survivor has 30 years from the date the cause of action accrues to file. For sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault of an adult, the deadline is five years.¹⁰

A survivor who does not yet know the assailant’s identity can file naming a John or Jane Doe defendant, which pauses the limitations clock. Once the survivor identifies the person, they have 30 days to amend the lawsuit with the real name.¹⁰ Because civil cases use a lower burden of proof than criminal ones, a survivor may prevail in a lawsuit even when criminal charges were never filed or resulted in an acquittal.

1
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 22.011 – Sexual Assault
2
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 22.021 – Aggravated Sexual Assault
3
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 21.02 – Continuous Sexual Abuse of Young Child or Disabled Individual
4
Texas State Law Library. What Is the Legal Age of Consent for Sex in Texas
5
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.33 – Second Degree Felony Punishment
6
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.32 – First Degree Felony Punishment
7
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 12.01 – Felonies
8
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 62 – Sex Offender Registration Program
9
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 62.102
10
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.0045