Texas Sexual Assault Statute: Penalties, Registration, and Civil Suits

Sexual assault under Texas Penal Code Section 22.011 is a second-degree felony punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. When aggravating factors like a deadly weapon, serious bodily injury, or a child victim are involved, the charge becomes aggravated sexual assault under Section 22.021, a first-degree felony carrying 5 to 99 years or life. Texas sexual assault penalties also include lifetime sex offender registration, restricted parole eligibility, and civil liability that can extend for decades after the sentence ends.¹

What Texas Defines as Sexual Assault

Section 22.011 covers three categories of conduct, each requiring that the act happen without the other person’s consent. Penetrating another person’s anus or sexual organ by any means. Penetrating another person’s mouth with a sexual organ. Or causing a sexual organ to contact or penetrate the mouth, anus, or sexual organ of another person.¹

The required mental state is “intentionally or knowingly.” Prosecutors must prove the accused acted with awareness, not that the act happened by accident.

The statute treats sexual assault of a child as a separate category. If the victim is younger than 17 and not the accused’s spouse, the same conduct qualifies regardless of whether force was used. Age changes the penalty structure, the statute of limitations, and the registration consequences.

When the Law Treats an Act as Non-Consensual

Many people assume sexual assault requires physical force. It doesn’t. Section 22.011 lists 14 scenarios where consent is legally absent, and several involve no violence at all.¹

The clearest situations involve force, threats, or incapacity:

Compelling submission through physical force, violence, or coercion.
Threatening force or violence against the victim or another person, where the victim believes the threat is credible.
Knowing the victim is unconscious or physically unable to resist.
Knowing the other person cannot understand the nature of the act or resist because of a mental disease or defect.
Knowing the victim does not realize the assault is occurring.
Knowing the other person is too intoxicated or impaired to consent.

The remaining scenarios target people who exploit trust or authority, and they capture situations most people wouldn’t initially connect to a sexual assault statute: public servants who coerce someone into a sexual act; mental health and health care providers who exploit a patient’s emotional dependency; clergy who exploit someone’s dependency on them as a spiritual adviser; employees of residential facilities who have sexual contact with a resident they’re not married to; coaches and tutors who use their influence over a person’s dependency; and hired caregivers who exploit a person’s need for daily-living assistance.

What Makes an Assault “Aggravated”

Section 22.021 takes the same underlying conduct and elevates it to a first-degree felony when certain aggravating circumstances are present.² The factors fall into three groups.

The first is conduct during the assault itself:

Causing serious bodily injury or attempting to kill the victim or another person during the same episode.
Placing the victim in fear that someone will be killed, seriously hurt, or kidnapped.
Using or displaying a deadly weapon, even if it is never fired or used to strike anyone.
Committing the assault together with another person against the same victim in the same episode.
Giving the victim any substance to impair the ability to understand what is happening or to resist.

The second group is victim age: any victim younger than 14 qualifies, regardless of whether the accused knew the age. The third group covers elderly and disabled victims.

The Prison Sentence You Face

The punishment range depends on how the offense is classified.

Sexual assault as a second-degree felony carries 2 to 20 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and a fine of up to $10,000.³

Aggravated sexual assault as a first-degree felony carries 5 to 99 years or life, plus a fine of up to $10,000.⁴

The minimum jumps to 25 years in two situations: when the victim is younger than 10, or when the victim is younger than 14 and the accused also caused serious bodily injury, used a deadly weapon, drugged the victim, acted with an accomplice, or made threats of death or kidnapping.²

Sexual assault can also be charged as a first-degree felony in a narrow set of incest-adjacent cases: when the victim is someone the accused was legally prohibited from marrying or living with as if married.¹

Parole Eligibility on a Conviction

Both sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault are “3g” offenses, a category reserved for the most serious crimes in Texas. That classification sharply limits parole. A person convicted of either offense must serve at least half of the sentence in actual calendar time before parole is even considered, with a minimum of two years and a maximum wait of 30 years.⁵

“Actual calendar time” is the critical phrase. Good-conduct credit does not count toward parole eligibility on these offenses. Only real days served move the clock.

A separate rule targets defendants who evade arrest: for every 12 months between the date an arrest warrant is issued and the date the person is actually arrested, parole eligibility is pushed back by three years. For certain repeat offenders convicted of aggravated sexual assault whose punishment is enhanced under the habitual offender statute, parole is off the table entirely.

Lifetime Sex Offender Registration

A conviction for sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault triggers mandatory registration under Chapter 62 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. The person must register with local law enforcement wherever they live or intend to live for more than seven days, and must do so within seven days of arriving.⁶

Registration requires full name, date of birth, physical description, Social Security number, driver’s license number, residential address, phone numbers, online identifiers, a recent photograph, and fingerprints. Registrants must also disclose their employer and any enrollment at a college or university.

Because sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault are classified as “sexually violent offenses,” the duty to register lasts for life and ends only at death.⁷ The Texas Department of Public Safety publishes the information in a public database that anyone can search.

Verification frequency depends on risk level. Some registrants verify annually; higher-risk registrants must appear in person every 90 days. Missing a verification deadline or failing to update information after a move is itself a felony that can add prison time.

Federal law adds a travel rule. Registered sex offenders must report international travel to the registry at least 21 days before leaving the United States. Emergency travel must be reported as soon as it is scheduled. Failing to give notice, or filing a false travel notice, can bring federal prosecution even if the state does not independently require travel reporting.⁸ Reporting the trip does not guarantee entry into the destination country, which decides admission on its own.

How Long Prosecutors Have to File Charges

Some Texas sexual assault cases have no statute of limitations. Prosecutors can bring charges at any point, no matter how many years have passed, in these situations:⁹

Sexual assault of a child (victim under 17).
Aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Adult sexual assault where biological evidence was collected and either has not yet been DNA tested or was tested but did not match anyone whose identity is known.
Adult sexual assault where probable cause exists to believe the defendant committed the same or a similar offense against five or more victims.

For adult sexual assault cases that do not fall into one of those categories, the standard felony limitations period applies. If a rape kit exists but has not been tested, the case has no expiration date.

Civil Lawsuits Separate From Criminal Charges

Criminal penalties are not the only exposure. A victim can file a civil lawsuit seeking monetary damages on a separate timeline. Adult victims have five years from the date the cause of action accrues to sue for sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault. Child victims have 30 years for sexual assault of a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child, continuous sexual abuse of a young child, indecency with a child, and certain trafficking offenses.¹⁰ A civil judgment can follow a defendant long after any prison sentence ends.

1
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 22.011 – Sexual Assault
2
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 22.021 – Aggravated Sexual Assault
3
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.33 – Second Degree Felony Punishment
4
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code Section 12.32 – First Degree Felony Punishment
5
Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Parole in Texas
6
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 62.051 – Registration
7
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 62.101 – Expiration of Duty to Register
8
U.S. Marshals Service. International Megan’s Law Complaint Form for Traveling Sex Offenders
9
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 12.01 – Felonies
10
State of Texas. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 16.0045