California Penal Code PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS

• Section 2.
  This Code takes effect at twelve o'clock, noon, on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-three.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 3.
  No part of it is retroactive, unless expressly so declared.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 4.
  The rule of the common law, that penal statutes are to be strictly construed, has no application to this Code. All its provisions are to...
• Section 5.
  The provisions of this Code, so far as they are substantially the same as existing statutes, must be construed as continuations thereof, and not as...
• Section 6.
  No act or omission, commenced after twelve o'clock noon of the day on which this Code takes effect as a law, is criminal or punishable,...
• Section 7.
  Words used in this code in the present tense include the future as well as the present; words used in the masculine gender include the...
• Section 7.5.
  Whenever any offense is described in this code, the Uniform Controlled Substances Act (Division 10 (commencing with Section 11000) of the Health and Safety Code),...
• Section 8.
  Whenever, by any of the provisions of this Code, an intent to defraud is required in order to constitute any offense, it is sufficient if...
• Section 9.
  The omission to specify or affirm in this Code any liability to damages, penalty, forfeiture, or other remedy imposed by law and allowed to be...
• Section 10.
  The omission to specify or affirm in this Code any ground of forfeiture of a public office, or other trust or special authority conferred by...
• Section 11.
  This code does not affect any power conferred by law upon any court-martial, or other military authority or officer, to impose or inflict punishment upon...
• Section 12.
  The several sections of this Code which declare certain crimes to be punishable as therein mentioned, devolve a duty upon the Court authorized to pass...
• Section 13.
  Whenever in this Code the punishment for a crime is left undetermined between certain limits, the punishment to be inflicted in a particular case must...
• Section 14.
  The various sections of this Code which declare that evidence obtained upon the examination of a person as a witness cannot be received against him...
• Section 15.
  A crime or public offense is an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it, and to which is annexed,...
• Section 16.
  Crimes and public offenses include:1. Felonies;2. Misdemeanors; and3. Infractions.(Amended by Stats. 1968, Ch. 1192.)
• Section 17.
  (a) A felony is a crime that is punishable with death, by imprisonment in the state prison, or notwithstanding any other provision of law, by imprisonment...
• Section 17.5.
  (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) The Legislature reaffirms its commitment to reducing recidivism among criminal offenders.(2) Despite the dramatic increase in corrections spending...
• Section 17.7.
  The Legislature finds and declares the following:(a) Strategies supporting reentering offenders through practices and programs, such as standardized risk and needs assessments, transitional community housing, treatment,...
• Section 18.
  (a) Except in cases where a different punishment is prescribed by any law of this state, every offense declared to be a felony is punishable by...
• Section 18.5.
  (a) Every offense which is prescribed by any law of the state to be punishable by imprisonment in a county jail up to or not exceeding...
• Section 19.
  Except in cases where a different punishment is prescribed by any law of this state, every offense declared to be a misdemeanor is punishable by...
• Section 19.2.
  In no case shall any person sentenced to confinement in a county or city jail, or in a county or joint county penal farm, road...
• Section 19.4.
  When an act or omission is declared by a statute to be a public offense and no penalty for the offense is prescribed in any...
• Section 19.6.
  An infraction is not punishable by imprisonment. A person charged with an infraction shall not be entitled to a trial by jury. A person charged...
• Section 19.7.
  Except as otherwise provided by law, all provisions of law relating to misdemeanors shall apply to infractions including, but not limited to, powers of peace...
• Section 19.8.
  (a) The following offenses are subject to subdivision (d) of Section 17: Sections 193.8, 330, 415, 485, 490.7, 555, 602.13, and 853.7 of this code; subdivision...
• Section 19.9.
  For purposes of this code, “mandatory supervision” shall mean the portion of a defendant’s sentenced term during which time he or she is supervised by...
• Section 20.
  In every crime or public offense there must exist a union, or joint operation of act and intent, or criminal negligence.(Enacted 1872.)
• Section 21a.
  An attempt to commit a crime consists of two elements: a specific intent to commit the crime, and a direct but ineffectual act done toward...
• Section 23.
  In any criminal proceeding against a person who has been issued a license to engage in a business or profession by a state agency pursuant...
• Section 24.
  This Act, whenever cited, enumerated, referred to, or amended, may be designated simply as The Penal Code, adding, when necessary, the number of the section.(Enacted

Last modified: October 22, 2018