TITLE 11.5. CRIMINAL THREATS [422. - 422.4.]

Cal. Penal Code - PEN 1.

in effect

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 422. Section 422.

(a) Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for their own safety or for their immediate family’s safety, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison. (b) In sentencing a person convicted of a felony violation of subdivision (a), the court may consider, as a factor in aggravation, that the defendant willfully threatened to commit a crime that would result in the death or great bodily injury of a person the defendant knew was a state constitutional officer, a Member of the Legislature, or a judge or court commissioner, as defined in subdivisions (a), (b), (c), (n), and (q) of Section 7920.500 of the Government Code. (c) (1) For purposes of this section, “immediate family” means any spouse, whether by marriage or not, parent, child, any person related by consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the prior six months, regularly resided in the household. (2) For purposes of this section, “electronic communication device” includes, but is not limited to, telephones, cellular telephones, computers, video recorders, fax machines, or pagers. “Electronic communication” has the same meaning as the term is defined in Subsection 12 of Section 2510 of Title 18 of the United States Code.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 422.1. Section 422.1.

Every person who is convicted of a felony violation of Section 148.1 or 11418.1, under circumstances in which the defendant knew the underlying report was false, in addition to being ordered to comply with all other applicable restitution requirements and fine and fee provisions, shall also be ordered to pay full restitution to each of the following: (a) Any person, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity for any personnel, equipment, material, or clean up costs, and for any property damage, caused by the violation directly, or stemming from any emergency response to the violation or its aftermath. (b) Any public or private entity incurring any costs for actual emergency response, for all costs of that response and for any clean up costs, including any overtime paid to uninvolved personnel made necessary by the allocation of resources to the emergency response and clean up. (c) Restitution for the costs of response by a government entity under this section shall be determined in a hearing separate from the determination of guilt. The court shall order restitution in an amount no greater than the reasonable costs of the response. The burden shall be on the people to prove the reasonable costs of the response. (d) In determining the restitution for the costs of response by a government entity, the court shall consider the amount of restitution to be paid to the direct victim, as defined in subdivision (k) of Section 1202.4.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 422.3. Section 422.3.

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), any person who willfully threatens, by any means, including, but not limited to, an image or threat posted or published on an internet web page, to commit a crime that will result in death or great bodily injury to another person or persons at a daycare, school, university, workplace, house of worship, or medical facility with specific intent that the statement is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, if the threat on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person or persons threatened a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and if that threat causes a person or persons to reasonably be in sustained fear for their own safety or the safety of others at these locations, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170. (b) If a person who commits an act in violation of subdivision (a) is under 18 years of age, the person shall be referred to services pursuant to Section 654 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, if eligible. If ineligible, the offense shall be punished as a misdemeanor. (c) This section does not preclude or prohibit prosecution under any other law, except that a person shall not be convicted for the same threat under both this section and Section 422.

Cal. Penal Code - PEN § 422.4. Section 422.4.

(a) Any person who publishes information describing or depicting an academic researcher or his or her immediate family member, or the location or locations where an academic researcher or an immediate family member of an academic researcher may be found, with the intent that another person imminently use the information to commit a crime involving violence or a threat of violence against an academic researcher or his or her immediate family member, and the information is likely to produce the imminent commission of such a crime, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both a fine and imprisonment. (b) For the purposes of this section, all of the following apply: (1) “Publishes” means making the information available to another person through any medium, including, but not limited to, the Internet, the World Wide Web, or e-mail. (2) “Academic researcher” has the same meaning as in Section 602.12. (3) “Immediate family” means any spouse, whether by marriage or not, domestic partner, parent, child, any person related by consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the prior six months, regularly resided in the household. (4) “Information” includes, but is not limited to, an image, film, filmstrip, photograph, negative, slide, photocopy, videotape, video laser disc, or any other computer-generated image. (c) Any academic researcher about whom information is published in violation of subdivision (a) may seek a preliminary injunction enjoining any further publication of that information. This subdivision shall not apply to a person or entity protected pursuant to Section 1070 of the Evidence Code. (d) This section shall not apply to any person who is lawfully engaged in labor union activities that are protected under state or federal law. (e) This section shall not preclude prosecution under any other provision of law.

Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026