Penal Law § 15.00 · Article 15. Culpability
Culpability; definitions of terms
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 15.00 Culpability; definitions of terms.
The following definitions are applicable to this chapter:
1. "Act" means a bodily movement.
2. "Voluntary act" means a bodily movement performed consciously as a result of effort or determination, and includes the possession of property if the actor was aware of his physical possession or control thereof for a sufficient period to have been able to terminate it.
3. "Omission" means a failure to perform an act as to which a duty of performance is imposed by law.
4. "Conduct" means an act or omission and its accompanying mental state.
5. "To act" means either to perform an act or to omit to perform an act.
6. "Culpable mental state" means "intentionally" or "knowingly" or "recklessly" or with "criminal negligence," as these terms are defined in section 15.05.
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/PEN15.00
- Text hash
- sha256 0e300a6bf86222c851c571b789d0d2226df8439ca42cae278eb2439efcfe0ae9
- 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.