What Is Second Degree Harassment in South Carolina?

Second-degree harassment in South Carolina is a misdemeanor built around a pattern of intentional, unwanted contact that intrudes on someone’s private life and causes real emotional distress. A first conviction carries up to 30 days in jail, a fine of up to $200, or both.¹ The jail exposure is modest, but the conviction itself is what tends to cause lasting problems: it shows up on background checks that employers, landlords, and licensing boards run for years afterward.

What the Statute Requires

Section 16-3-1700(B) defines second-degree harassment as a pattern of intentional, substantial, and unreasonable intrusion into another person’s private life that serves no legitimate purpose and causes the kind of mental or emotional distress a reasonable person in the same position would feel. The statute reaches verbal, written, and electronic contact that is started, kept up, or repeated.²

The word “pattern” does a lot of work. Under the same section, a pattern means two or more acts over any period of time that show a continuity of purpose. There is no minimum window. Two acts across two days can qualify just as easily as two acts across several months. A single unwanted phone call cannot sustain the charge on its own.

“No legitimate purpose” matters more than most people expect. Contact tied to a genuine business dispute, debt collection, co-parenting, or an active legal matter can fall outside the statute even if the recipient finds it unwelcome. Prosecutors evaluate context before filing, and that is often where borderline cases drop out.

How It Differs From First-Degree Harassment

Second-degree harassment usually covers persistent unwanted communication: repeated calls, texts, emails, or social media messages. First-degree harassment reaches more aggressive conduct. Under Section 16-3-1700(A), that includes following someone, showing up at or watching their home, workplace, or school, damaging property, or continuing contact after the person has clearly told you to stop or filed a police report.²

The two charges sit on the same spectrum. Repeated unwanted texts likely fall into second degree. Add physical appearances at the workplace or damage to the person’s car and the charge can move up to first degree. Further escalation can push the conduct into stalking under the same article. Both sides of a case should understand how quickly the facts can move the charge upward.

Conduct That Typically Leads to Charges

Most second-degree harassment charges rest on repeated, unsolicited communication. Streams of text messages, persistent phone calls, emails sent after a request to stop, and continued social media contact all fit the statute. The messages do not need to contain threats. Volume and persistence can be enough when the contact serves no legitimate purpose and a reasonable person would find it distressing.

Repeatedly showing up at someone’s home, job, or regular locations without a valid reason can also factor in, though that conduct often pushes a case toward first-degree harassment or stalking. Leaving unwanted notes or items at a person’s door can contribute to the pattern when it is part of a broader course of intrusive behavior.

Courts look at the whole picture. A handful of messages during a mutual disagreement reads differently than dozens of one-sided messages after the recipient asked for no contact. Frequency, content, timing, and whether the person was told to stop all weigh into whether the conduct crosses the statutory line.

Penalties

A first conviction is a misdemeanor carrying up to 30 days in jail, a fine of up to $200, or both.¹ Judges work within those limits based on the severity of the behavior, the defendant’s record, and the effect on the victim.

The penalties jump sharply in two situations. Under Section 16-3-1710(B), a second-degree harassment conviction becomes punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 if the defendant has a prior harassment or stalking conviction within the preceding ten years, or if the harassment occurred while a restraining order was in effect prohibiting that same conduct.¹ The second trigger catches people off guard. If a court has already issued a restraining order and you engage in the same conduct that prompted it, you can face the enhanced harassment penalty along with potential contempt of court.

What a Conviction Does to Your Record

A first-offense second-degree harassment conviction is eligible for expungement. Section 22-5-910 allows a person convicted of a crime carrying a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail or a $1,000 fine (or both) to apply for expungement three years after the date of conviction.³ A first-offense second-degree harassment conviction fits within those limits.

There are conditions. You cannot have any other convictions, including out-of-state convictions, during the three-year waiting period. You cannot have pending charges unless they have been pending for more than five years. And you can only use this expungement provision once in your lifetime. A guilty plea, a no-contest plea, and forfeiting bail all count as convictions for these purposes.³

Enhanced second-degree harassment convictions, which carry up to a year in jail, likely exceed the expungement threshold. A repeat offense or one that violated a restraining order may stay on your record permanently. The gap between a first and second offense is not just about the sentence but about whether the record can ever be cleared.

Collateral Consequences

Beyond the sentence, a harassment conviction can reach into areas people do not anticipate.

Security Clearances

Federal adjudicative guidelines treat criminal history as relevant to clearance decisions. Under Guideline J of 32 CFR Part 147, a pattern of criminal activity, or even a single lesser offense, raises doubts about judgment, reliability, and trustworthiness.⁴ A harassment conviction does not automatically disqualify someone, but it triggers scrutiny. Passage of time, the isolated nature of the incident, and evidence of rehabilitation can mitigate.

Immigration Status

For non-citizens, a harassment conviction carries added risk. Immigration authorities evaluate whether a conviction qualifies as a crime involving moral turpitude, which can affect visa status, green card eligibility, and deportation. Whether harassment reaches that level depends on the specific elements of the offense and whether the statute requires willful, morally reprehensible conduct.⁵ USCIS has separately noted that unlawful harassment can undermine a finding of good moral character, which is required for naturalization. Any non-citizen facing a harassment charge should consult an immigration attorney before entering a plea.

Firearms

A general second-degree harassment conviction does not trigger the federal firearm ban under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), which applies only to convictions that qualify as a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.⁶ If the harassment targeted a spouse, former spouse, co-parent, or someone the defendant shared a household with, the conviction could meet that federal definition and result in a lifetime ban on possessing firearms or ammunition. The distinction turns on the relationship between the people involved, not the label on the charge.

Restraining Orders

Victims can petition for a restraining order under Section 16-3-1750. Magistrate court has jurisdiction, and any person can file. The complaint must describe the specific acts of harassment, including the time, place, and manner, and must inform the defendant of the right to retain an attorney.⁷

The court schedules a hearing where both sides can present testimony and evidence. If the judge finds that harassment has occurred and is likely to continue, the court issues a restraining order for a fixed period of not less than one year. That is a floor, not a ceiling. The statute also provides for temporary restraining orders, which can offer immediate protection before the full hearing. Both temporary and permanent orders are enforceable throughout the state.⁷

Unlike orders of protection issued through family court in domestic violence cases, harassment restraining orders under this statute cover relationships between acquaintances, coworkers, neighbors, and strangers. There is no filing fee.

How Cases Get Proven

The prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant engaged in a pattern of intentional, unwanted conduct that caused the victim mental or emotional distress. Electronic evidence usually anchors the case. Text messages, call logs, emails, and social media messages produce a timestamped record of repeated contact. Screenshots, phone company records, and platform data can all establish the frequency and content of the communications.

Victim testimony fills in what the record cannot show on its own: how the behavior affected daily life, emotional state, and sense of safety. Coworkers who observed the defendant showing up uninvited, or friends who saw the stream of messages, can corroborate. Police reports and prior complaints help establish that the behavior was reported in real time.

Second-degree harassment is a misdemeanor tried in magistrate court. Defendants there do have a right to a jury trial, but it must be requested. Under Section 22-2-150, any person charged with an offense within a magistrate’s jurisdiction is entitled to a jury trial on demand.⁸ Without a request, the judge alone decides the verdict.

Defenses

The strongest defenses often target the “no legitimate purpose” element. If the contact related to a genuine business matter, legal dispute, shared parental responsibility, or similar reason, the statute does not apply, no matter how unwelcome the recipient found it. Courts draw a line between contact that is annoying and contact that is both purposeless and intrusive.

Lack of intent is another common defense. The statute requires intentional conduct, so accidental contact or communication the defendant genuinely did not realize was unwanted can defeat the charge. This surfaces when both parties were communicating freely until one side decided, without saying so clearly, that the contact was no longer welcome.

Challenging the pattern element is straightforward when the facts support it. If the prosecution can only point to a single incident, there is no pattern and the charge fails. Even with multiple incidents, the defense may argue the acts were unrelated or lacked the continuity of purpose the statute requires.²

In contested personal disputes, false accusations do occur. Messages showing the contact was mutual, witnesses placing the defendant elsewhere, or inconsistencies in the accuser’s timeline can be decisive. First Amendment considerations also surface occasionally. South Carolina’s statute cannot be applied in a way that punishes constitutionally protected speech, so an aggressive reading that sweeps in political commentary or public criticism is vulnerable to challenge.

When the Case Can Go Federal

Most second-degree harassment cases stay in state court, but some conduct can trigger federal jurisdiction. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2261A, using the mail, an internet service, or any other facility of interstate commerce in a course of conduct that causes substantial emotional distress or places someone in reasonable fear of serious bodily injury is a federal felony.⁹ Conduct that begins as a state misdemeanor can escalate to a federal case when it crosses state lines or relies heavily on internet-based communication. Federal penalties go well beyond anything in the state framework, and defendants whose behavior fits that description should be aware of the exposure.

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Section 16-3-1710 – Penalties for Conviction of Harassment in the Second Degree
2
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Section 16-3-1700 – Definitions
3
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 22 Chapter 5 – Section 22-5-910
4
eCFR. Part 147 – Adjudicative Guidelines for Determining Eligibility for Access to Classified Information
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Conditional Bars for Acts in Statutory Period
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 922 – Unlawful Acts
7
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Section 16-3-1750 – Action Seeking a Restraining Order Against a Person Engaged in Harassment or Stalking
8
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Title 22 Chapter 2 – Section 22-2-150
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2261A – Stalking