Pen. Code, § 207 · Chapter 3. Kidnapping
Pen. Code, § 207
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Every person who forcibly, or by any other means of instilling fear, steals or takes, or holds, detains, or arrests any person in this state, and carries the person into another country, state, or county, or into another part of the same county, is guilty of kidnapping.
(b) Every person, who for the purpose of committing any act defined in Section 288, hires, persuades, entices, decoys, or seduces by false promises, misrepresentations, or the like, any child under the age of 14 years to go out of this country, state, or county, or into another part of the same county, is guilty of kidnapping.
(c) Every person who forcibly, or by any other means of instilling fear, takes or holds, detains, or arrests any person, with a design to take the person out of this state, without having established a claim, according to the laws of the United States, or of this state, or who hires, persuades, entices, decoys, or seduces by false promises, misrepresentations, or the like, any person to go out of this state, or to be taken or removed therefrom, for the purpose and with the intent to sell that person into slavery or involuntary servitude, or otherwise to employ that person for his or her own use, or to the use of another, without the free will and consent of that persuaded person, is guilty of kidnapping.
(d) Every person who, being out of this state, abducts or takes by force or fraud any person contrary to the law of the place where that act is committed, and brings, sends, or conveys that person within the limits of this state, and is afterwards found within the limits thereof, is guilty of kidnapping.
(e) For purposes of those types of kidnapping requiring force, the amount of force required to kidnap an unresisting infant or child is the amount of physical force required to take and carry the child away a substantial distance for an illegal purpose or with an illegal intent.
(f) Subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, do not apply to any of the following:
(1) To any person who steals, takes, entices away, detains, conceals, or harbors any child under the age of 14 years, if that act is taken to protect the child from danger of imminent harm.
(2) To any person acting under Section 834 or 837.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2003, Ch. 23, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2004.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=207.
- Text hash
- sha256 060bc884e319c461c8fc3b77230465fe32d0e8c5af6dc784d683049024d5f2f3
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Cited by 37 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 207. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Business and Professions Code
Penal Code
- Pen. Code, § 186.2Printed as Section 207
- Pen. Code, § 186.22Printed as Section 207
- Pen. Code, § 190.2Printed as Section 207, 209, or 209.5
- Pen. Code, § 288.3Printed as Section 207, 209, 261, 264.1, 273a, 286, 287, 288, 288.2, 289, 311.1, 311.2, 311.4 or 311.11
- Pen. Code, § 290Printed as Section 207 or 209
- Pen. Code, § 290.008Printed as Section 207 or 209
- Pen. Code, § 290.46Printed as Section 207
- Pen. Code, § 667.61Printed as Section 207, 209, or 209.5
- Pen. Code, § 667.71Printed as Section 207
- Pen. Code, § 667.8Printed as Section 207 or 209
- Pen. Code, § 667.85Printed as Section 207 or 209
- Pen. Code, § 667.9Printed as Section 207, 209, or 209.5
- Pen. Code, § 679.02Printed as Section 207 or 209
- Pen. Code, § 778aPrinted as Sections 207 and 209
- Pen. Code, § 868.5Printed as Section 187, 203, 205, or 207
- Pen. Code, § 999ePrinted as Section 207
- Pen. Code, § 1170.1Printed as Section 207
- Pen. Code, § 1203.055Printed as Section 207
- Pen. Code, § 1203.06Printed as Section 207, 209, or 209.5
- Pen. Code, § 1203.066Printed as Section 207, 209, or 209.5
- Pen. Code, § 1203.075Printed as Section 207, 209, or 209.5
- Pen. Code, § 1203.08Printed as Section 187, 192, 207, 209, 209.5, 211, 215, 217, 245, 288
- Pen. Code, § 1203.09Printed as Section 207
- Pen. Code, § 1547Printed as Section 207
- Pen. Code, § 1601Printed as Section 207, 209, or 209.5
- Pen. Code, § 2910.5Printed as Sections 207, 210.5, 214, 217.1, or 220
- Pen. Code, § 2933.5Printed as Section 207, 209, or 209.5
- Pen. Code, § 2962Printed as Section 207
- Pen. Code, § 3057Printed as Section 203, 207, 211, 215, 217.1, or 220
- Pen. Code, § 3420Printed as Section 207 or 209
- Pen. Code, § 12022.53Printed as Section 207, 209, or 209.5
- Pen. Code, § 13853Printed as Section 207
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.