Penal Law § 120.02 · Article 120. Assault and Related Offenses
Reckless assault of a child
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 120.02 Reckless assault of a child.
1. A person is guilty of reckless assault of a child when, being eighteen years of age or more, such person recklessly causes serious physical injury to the brain of a child less than five years old by shaking the child, or by slamming or throwing the child so as to impact the child's head on a hard surface or object.
2. For purposes of subdivision one of this section, the following shall constitute "serious physical injury":
a. "serious physical injury" as defined in subdivision ten of section 10.00 of this chapter; or
b. extreme rotational cranial acceleration and deceleration and one or more of the following: (i) subdural hemorrhaging; (ii) intracranial hemorrhaging; or (iii) retinal hemorrhaging.
Reckless assault of a child is a class D felony.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN120.02
- Text hash
- sha256 58bd799463b4ac2d81621c04d11843bc1d34da0b44d9fad178f7effbcbc8192d
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
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.