California Codes

Cal. Penal Code § 7 (2026)

✓ current as of May 2026

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(a)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 feminine and neuter. Words used in the singular number includes the plural, and the plural the singular.

(1)“Person” includes a corporation as well as a natural person.

(2)“County” includes city and county.

(3)“Writing” includes printing and typewriting.

(4)“Oath” includes affirmation or declaration, and every mode of oral statement, under oath or affirmation, is embraced by the term “testify,” and every written one in the term “depose.”

(5)“Signature” or “subscription” includes mark, when the person cannot write, their name being written near it, by a person who writes their own name as a witness, if, that when a signature is made by mark it shall, in order that the same may be acknowledged or serve as the signature to any sworn statement, be witnessed by two persons who shall subscribe their own names as witnesses thereto.

(b)The following words have in this code the signification attached to them in this section, unless otherwise apparent from the context:

(1)“Willfully,” when applied to the intent with which an act is done or omitted, implies simply a purpose or willingness to commit the act, or make the omission referred to. It does not require any intent to violate law, to injure another, or to acquire any advantage.

(2)“Neglect,” “negligence,” “negligent,” and “negligently” import a want of the attention to the nature or probable consequences of the act or omission that a prudent person ordinarily bestows in acting in their own concerns.

(3)“Corruptly” imports a wrongful design to acquire or cause some pecuniary or other advantage to the person guilty of the act or omission referred to, or to some other person.

(4)“Malice” and “maliciously” import a wish to vex, annoy, or injure another person, or an intent to do a wrongful act, established either by proof or presumption of law.

(5)“Knowingly” imports only a knowledge that the facts exist which bring the act or omission within the provisions of this code. It does not require any knowledge of the unlawfulness of that act or omission.

(6)“Bribe” signifies anything of value or advantage, present or prospective, or any promise or undertaking to give any, asked, given, or accepted, with a corrupt intent to influence, unlawfully, the person to whom it is given, in their action, vote, or opinion, in any public or official capacity.

(7)“Vessel,” when used with reference to shipping, includes ships of all kinds, steamboats, canalboats, barges, and every structure adapted to be navigated from place to place for the transportation of merchandise or persons, except that, as used in Sections 192.5 and 193.5, the word “vessel” means a vessel as defined in Section 651 of the Harbors and Navigation Code.

(8)“Peace officer” signifies any one of the officers mentioned in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2.

(9)“Magistrate” signifies any one of the officers mentioned in Section 808.

(10)“Property” includes both real and personal property.

(11)“Real property” is coextensive with lands, tenements, and hereditaments.

(12)“Personal property” includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt.

(13)“Month” means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed; the word “daytime” means the period between sunrise and sunset, and the word “nighttime” means the period between sunset and sunrise.

(14)“Will” includes codicil.

(15)“Writ” signifies an order or precept in writing, issued in the name of the people, or of a court or judicial officer, and “process” a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings.

(16)When the seal of a court or public officer is required by law to be affixed to any paper, the word “seal” includes an impression of the seal upon the paper alone, or upon any substance attached to the paper capable of receiving a visible impression. The seal of a private person may be made in like manner, or by the scroll of a pen, or by writing the word “seal” against their name.

(17)“State,” when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and “United States” may include the district and territories.

(18)“Section,” whenever hereinafter employed, refers to a section of this code, unless some other code or statute is expressly mentioned.

(19)To “book” signifies the recordation of an arrest in official police records, and the taking by the police of fingerprints and photographs of the person arrested, or any of these acts following an arrest.

(20)“Spouse” includes “registered domestic partner,” as required by Section 297.5 of the Family Code.

(c)Words and phrases shall be construed according to the context and the approved usage of the language, but technical words and phrases, and any others as may have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in law, shall be construed according to that peculiar and appropriate meaning.

(d)Words giving a joint authority to three or more public officers or other persons, are construed as giving that authority to a majority of them, unless it is otherwise expressed in the act giving the authority.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 211 cases (20 in the last 5 years), 1885–2026 · leading case: People v. Hagen, 967 P.2d 563 (Cal. 1998).

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People v. Hagen, 967 P.2d 563 (Cal. 1998). · cites it 8× “The Court of Appeal, similarly, reasoned that section 19405(a)(1) "is a perjury statute" and that the Penal Code section 7 definition of "willfully" applies "to the general crime of perjury defined in Penal Code section 118 and to the more specific crime of perjury committed in…”

People v. Belton, 591 P.2d 485 (Cal. 1979). · cites it 4× “The term "testify" is referred to in identical language in the Penal Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, and the Civil Code: ".”

People v. Honig, 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5920 (Cal. Ct. App. 1996). · cites it 4× “Mancha (1974) 39 Cal. App.3d 703, 722 [ 114 Cal. Rptr. 392 ].”

United States v. Clayton R. Jackson, 72 F.3d 1370 (9th Cir. 1995). · cites it 4× “29 is taken verbatim from Cal.Penal Code § 7(3) and CALJIC 7.00.5. Finally, instruction No.”

Brown v. Superior Court of Sacramento Cnty., 371 P.3d 223 (Cal. 2016). · cites it 2× “, § 16; Pen. Code, § 7, subd. 16; Prob. Code, § 21122.”

Ileto v. Glock, Inc., 565 F.3d 1126 (9th Cir. 2009). · cites it 2× “5 (stating that for purposes of the California Penal Code, "[t]he word `knowingly' imports only a knowledge that the facts exist which bring the act or omission within the provisions of this code. It does not require any knowledge of the unlawfulness of such act or omission.”

Hale v. Morgan, 584 P.2d 512 (Cal. 1978). · cites it 2× “The absurdity of such a condition of the law is shown in the consummate satire of Pascal, where, speaking upon this subject, he says, in substance, that although the less a man thinks of the moral law the more culpable he is, yet under municipal law `the more he relieves himself…”

Elisa Menendez v. Matthew Whitaker, 908 F.3d 467 (9th Cir. 2018). · cites it 2× “” Cal. Penal Code § 7 (1). Further, as discussed above, a reasonable and good-faith mistake of age is not a defense to § 288(c)(1).”

People v. Sargent, 970 P.2d 409 (Cal. 1999). · cites it 2× “" [2] Penal Code section 7, subdivision 1, expressly defines "willfully," with regard to an act or omission, as a "purpose or willingness to commit" such act or omission.”

Calvillo-Silva v. Home Grocery, 968 P.2d 65 (Cal. 1998). · cites it 2× “Noting that Penal Code section 7 defines "willfully" as "simply a purpose or willingness to commit the act, or make the omission referred to" (Pen.Code, § 7, subd. 1), the court construed the term "willful" in section 847 to mean "simply intentionality or purposefulness.”

People v. Gory, 170 P.2d 433 (Cal. 1946). · cites it 3× ““The word ‘knowingly’ imports only a knowledge that the facts exist which bring the act or omission within the provisions of this code.”

People Ex Rel. Reisig v. Acuna, 9 Cal. App. 5th 1 (Cal. Ct. App. 2017). “The Supreme Court, affirming our reversal of the gang participation conviction, said the defendant’s commission of attempted robbery while acting alone did not fall within the elements of the gang participation offense, which requires willful promoting, furthering, or assisting…”

Show all 211 citing cases →

— Cal. Penal Code § 7(1) — 2 cases

Camden, 607 F.3d 566 (1970).

United States v. Castro, 607 F.3d 566 (9th Cir. 2010).

— Cal. Penal Code § 7(21) — 1 case

Elizabeth Haskell v. Edmund Brown, Jr., 669 F.3d 1049 (9th Cir. 2012).

— Cal. Penal Code § 7(3) — 1 case

United States v. Clayton R. Jackson, 72 F.3d 1370 (9th Cir. 1995). “29 is taken verbatim from Cal.Penal Code § 7(3) and CALJIC 7.00.5. Finally, instruction No.”

— Cal. Penal Code § 7(4) — 2 cases

Plyam v. Precision Dev., LLC (In Re Plyam), 530 B.R. 456 (9th Cir. BAP 2015).

State Vs. Dist. Ct. (radonski, (david)), 2020 NV 23 (Nev. 2020).

— Cal. Penal Code § 7(5) — 2 cases

United States v. Clayton R. Jackson, 72 F.3d 1370 (9th Cir. 1995). “29 is taken verbatim from Cal.Penal Code § 7(3) and CALJIC 7.00.5. Finally, instruction No.”

People v. Haydon, 234 P.2d 720 (Cal. Ct. App. 1951).

— Cal. Penal Code § 7(6) — 3 cases

United States v. Clayton R. Jackson, 72 F.3d 1370 (9th Cir. 1995). “29 is taken verbatim from Cal.Penal Code § 7(3) and CALJIC 7.00.5. Finally, instruction No.”

Wurster v. State, 708 N.E.2d 587 (Ind. Ct. App. 1999).

Adler v. Fed. Repub. of Nigeria, 219 F.3d 869 (9th Cir. 2000).

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