18 USC 2244: Abusive Sexual Contact, Sentencing & Registration

Under 18 U.S.C. 2244, penalties for abusive sexual contact on federal property range from up to two years in prison for touching without permission to life imprisonment when the victim is a child under 12. The exact maximum depends on which underlying federal sex-offense circumstances the contact mirrors, and for victims under 12 most of those maximums double. A conviction also brings mandatory restitution, a minimum five years of supervised release, sex offender registration, a permanent firearms ban, and passport restrictions when the victim was a minor.

The Six Prison-Term Tiers

Section 2244 doesn’t set one penalty. It sets several, keyed to the circumstances of the contact. “Sexual contact” here means intentional touching of the genitalia, groin, breast, inner thigh, buttocks, or anus, directly or through clothing, with intent to abuse, humiliate, degrade, or sexually gratify.¹ The statute asks whether that contact happened under conditions that would have made a full sexual act a crime under another federal statute, and it borrows the seriousness of that other statute to set the term.²

The tiers under subsection (a), from most to least severe:

Any term of years up to life when the contact would have violated Section 2241(c): the victim was a child under 12, or was 12 to 15 and force or incapacitation was used.³
Up to 10 years when the contact would have violated Section 2241(a) or (b): the defendant used force, threatened death or serious injury, or rendered the victim unconscious or drugged them.
Up to 3 years when the contact would have violated Section 2242: lesser threats or coercion, or contact with someone incapable of understanding what was happening or of refusing.
Up to 2 years when the contact would have violated Section 2243(a): the victim was 12 to 15 and the defendant was at least four years older.
Up to 2 years when the contact would have violated Section 2243(b): the victim was in official detention and the defendant had custodial authority.

Subsection (b) is the sixth tier and the default one. It covers any knowing sexual contact without the other person’s permission, and it carries up to 2 years in prison.³ Prosecutors use it when the conduct doesn’t fit one of the aggravated categories above.

Doubled Maximums When the Victim Is Under 12

Subsection (c) doubles the maximum prison term whenever the victim has not reached age 12. A 2-year cap becomes 4 years, a 3-year cap becomes 6, and a 10-year cap becomes 20.³ The life-imprisonment tier is left out of the doubling because it already allows the maximum sentence available.

Fines

Every tier authorizes a fine on top of prison time. For felony-level offenses, individual fines are capped at $250,000 under the general federal fine statute.⁴ Where the offense produced provable gain to the defendant or loss to the victim, the fine can rise to twice the amount of that gain or loss.

Mandatory Restitution to the Victim

Restitution is not optional. Under 18 U.S.C. 2248, the court must order the defendant to pay the victim for the full amount of losses caused by the offense, and it cannot decline to order restitution based on the defendant’s ability to pay or the victim’s other sources of compensation like insurance.⁵ Covered losses include medical, psychiatric, and psychological care; physical and occupational therapy; transportation, temporary housing, and child care; lost income; legal fees, including the cost of obtaining a protective order; and any other losses directly caused by the offense.

Supervised Release

Prison isn’t the end of court supervision. Federal law imposes a mandatory term of supervised release after imprisonment for Section 2244 convictions, with a minimum of five years and no cap, meaning judges can impose supervision for life.⁶ Conditions typically restrict where the person can live, who they can contact, and their use of computers and the internet. If someone already required to register as a sex offender commits another qualifying offense while on supervised release, the court must revoke release and add at least five years of imprisonment.

Sex Offender Registration

A conviction under Section 2244 triggers registration under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. The tier controls how long registration lasts.

Tier II applies to abusive sexual contact committed against a minor when the offense carries more than a year of potential imprisonment. It requires 25 years of registration.⁷

Tier III applies to abusive sexual contact against a child under 13, and to offenses comparable to aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse under Sections 2241 and 2242. Tier III is lifetime registration.⁷

Failure to register or update registration is itself a federal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. If an unregistered offender then commits a violent crime, the penalty rises to 5 to 30 years, served consecutively to any other sentence.⁸

Firearms Ban

Any Section 2244 conviction carrying a potential sentence over one year (most subsection (a) offenses) permanently bars the person from possessing firearms or ammunition under federal law.⁹ Possessing a firearm in violation of that ban is a separate federal felony.

Passport Restrictions for Convictions Involving a Minor

If the victim was a minor, International Megan’s Law requires the State Department to add a visible identifier to the offender’s passport marking them as a convicted sex offender. The Department will not issue passport cards to covered offenders and can revoke an existing passport that does not carry the identifier.¹⁰ Covered offenders must self-identify on passport applications.

How Long the Government Has to File Charges

When the victim was under 18, there is no statute of limitations. Because Section 2244 sits within Chapter 109A, an indictment involving a minor victim can be filed at any time.¹¹ For offenses with adult victims, the standard federal five-year limit from the date of the offense applies.

Where Section 2244 Applies

One boundary matters before reading the penalties as a general rule: Section 2244 is a federal jurisdiction statute. It reaches sexual contact within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, in federal prisons and facilities holding people under federal contract, and in some Indian country settings.³ That covers military bases, national parks, federal courthouses, VA facilities, U.S.-flagged ships, and U.S.-registered aircraft. Conduct that happens outside those settings is prosecuted, if at all, under state law rather than Section 2244, and the penalties above will not apply.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2246 – Definitions for Chapter
2
Department of Justice Archives. Criminal Resource Manual 1985 – Abusive Sexual Contact
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2244 – Abusive Sexual Contact
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3571 – Sentence of Fine
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2248 – Mandatory Restitution
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3583 – Inclusion of a Term of Supervised Release After Imprisonment
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 34 USC 20911 – Relevant Definitions
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2250 – Failure to Register
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
10
U.S. Department of State. Passports and International Megan’s Law
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3299 – Child Abduction and Sex Offenses