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In California, verbal abuse can sometimes be charged as a crime. While the law doesn’t cover every single instance of true emotional abuse, it does cover some specific types of emotional abuse. 

The way the law handles emotional abuse changes depending whether we’re talking about an adult victim or a child victim. 

Emotional Damage to a Child

California’s Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA) does not require mandated reporters to make a report even when they suspect a child is suffering from “serious emotional damage.” Nevertheless this type of behavior does offer grounds for child protective services to intervene. 

However, a person commits mental abuse of a child when, while a child is in their care, they willfully inflict or permit the child to suffer “unjustifiable mental suffering.” This can include belittling, blaming, sarcasm, rejection, corruption, screaming, humiliation, threatening, name calling, exposing a child to domestic violence, deliberately withholding love and affection, and placing a child in restraints or severe confinement. This is a crime of child endangerment, and may be charged as either a misdemeanor or as a felony. 

The acts listed in the next section, under “harassment and threats,” are also crimes when aimed at children. 

Harassment and Threats

Emotional abuse against an adult is considered a crime when it rises to the level of intentional threat. The target of the threat must then be made to feel a “reasonable apprehension of imminent serious bodily injury to himself or another.” 

Often, prosecutors will try to demonstrate that a pattern of harassment and threat behavior exists. They may bring in texts, emails, or other evidence to show that the alleged abuser regularly engages in this type of behavior. 

The target of these crimes does not necessarily have to live in your home or be a domestic partner, though this is often the case.

Get Help Today

Whether you are being accused of inflicting physical harm or of threatening your partner or endangering your children, domestic violence charges are extremely serious. You’ll need an experienced criminal attorney by your side.

Reach out to our office to schedule a case review. There are defenses we can use for either of these accusations. For example, we may be able to show you never intended harm with your words, or that you did not invoke a credible threat. 

See also:

What is Child Endangerment in Los Angeles 

Domestic Violence Arrests in Los Angeles, CA 

Do You Really Need a Los Angeles Criminal Lawyer if You’re Innocent?