Law enforcement
Protective orders
Courts may extend post-conviction no-contact orders to a victim’s family or household members.
The law expands protection beyond the direct victim after convictions for domestic violence, trafficking, sexual offenses, gang crimes, and related offenses. It also allows orders to last at least 10 years or until one year after release from prison or jail, whichever is later.
What the law does
- Allows sentencing courts to consider barring a convicted defendant from contacting a victim’s family members or household members.
- Defines a victim’s family member as a person related through adoption, domestic partnership, marriage, or blood or marriage ties within the second degree.
- Permits covered protective orders to remain effective for up to 10 years or one year after the defendant’s release from state prison or county jail, whichever is later.
- Allows the sentencing court to modify the order during its term.
Who it affects
- Victims of specified domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual, gang-related, and sex-offender-registration crimes.
- Victims’ family and household members.
- Defendants convicted of those offenses.
Context
Protective-order violations can be prosecuted as crimes.