Ark. Code Ann. § 5-27-401 (2026)
Definitions
As used in this subchapter:
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“Performance” means any play, dance, act, drama, piece, interlude, pantomime, show, scene, or other three-dimensional presentation or a part of a play, dance, act, drama, piece, interlude, pantomime, show, scene, or other three-dimensional presentation, whether:
- Performed live or photographed;
- Filmed;
- Videotaped; or
- Visually depicted by any other photographic, cinematic, magnetic, or electronic means;
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“Promote” means to:
- Sell, give, provide, distribute, circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit, or advertise; or
- Offer or agree to sell, give, provide, distribute, circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit, or advertise;
- “Sadomasochistic abuse” means flagellation, mutilation, or torture by or upon a person who is nude or clad in an undergarment or in revealing or bizarre costume or the condition of being fettered, bound, or otherwise physically restrained on the part of one so clothed, in a sexual context;
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“Sexual conduct” means:
- Actual or simulated sexual intercourse;
- Deviate sexual activity;
- Sexual bestiality;
- Masturbation;
- Sadomasochistic abuse; or
- Lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person or a breast of a female; and
- “Sexual performance” means any performance or part of a performance that includes sexual conduct by a child under eighteen (18) years of age.
History. Acts 1983, No. 451, § 1; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-4206; Acts 1995, No. 337, § 1; 1995, No. 1209, § 2; 2007, No. 827, § 38; 2011, No. 1190, § 2.
Amendments. The 2011 amendment substituted “eighteen (18)” for “seventeen (17)” in (5).
Case Notes
Performance.
The fact that the definition of “performance” in subdivision (1) of this section requires an exhibition of the work before an audience of at least two persons indicates that the legislators had in mind some form of public display rather than a private recording of sexual intimacies between participating parties. Graham v. State, 314 Ark. 152, 861 S.W.2d 299 (1993) (decision under prior law).
The definition of “performance” set forth in subdivision (1) of this section requires the state to prove that the sexual performance was exhibited to two or more viewers. Graham v. State, 314 Ark. 152, 861 S.W.2d 299 (1993) (decision under prior law).
Sufficiency of the Evidence.
Substantial evidence existed from which the jury could conclude that defendants, husband and wife, permitted their child to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the use in visual or print medium and that defendant husband produced, directed, or promoted a sexual performance; the videotapes showed full frontal nudity of the child, who was no more than 13 years old, and the scenes depicted were lewd. Cummings v. State, 353 Ark. 618, 110 S.W.3d 272 (2003).
Evidence was sufficient to sustain defendant's convictions of possession of visual or print medium depicting sexually explicit conduct where the images in defendant's possession constituted “sexually explicit conduct”; there were images containing the bare breasts of 14 year-old girls, and the girls were photographed in sexually suggestive positions. George v. State, 358 Ark. 269, 189 S.W.3d 28 (2004), cert. denied, George v. Arkansas, 543 U.S. 1163, 125 S. Ct. 1329 (2005).