Florida Statutes

Fla. Stat. § 794.027 (2025)

Duty to report sexual battery; penalties.

✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
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794.027 Duty to report sexual battery; penalties.A person who observes the commission of the crime of sexual battery and who:
(1) Has reasonable grounds to believe that he or she has observed the commission of a sexual battery;
(2) Has the present ability to seek assistance for the victim or victims by immediately reporting such offense to a law enforcement officer;
(3) Fails to seek such assistance;
(4) Would not be exposed to any threat of physical violence for seeking such assistance;
(5) Is not the husband, wife, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, or sister of the offender or victim, by consanguinity or affinity; and
(6) Is not the victim of such sexual battery

is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

History.s. 3, ch. 84-86; s. 1226, ch. 97-102.

Arrestable Offenses under F.S. 794.027

M = misdemeanor · F = felony · degree: F=1st S=2nd T=3rd
§794.027FAILURE REPORT CRIMEOBSERVE SEXUAL BATTERYM · 1st
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1 case, 2009–2009 · leading case: Est. of Cilley v. Lane, 2009 ME 133 (Me. 2009).
Est. of Cilley v. Lane, 2009 ME 133 (Me. 2009). “, Fla. Stat. Ann. § 794.027 (LEXIS through 2009 Sess.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.

This Florida statute resource is curated by the attorney maintaining this site, a Jacksonville, Florida criminal defense attorney (Florida Bar No. 39104). Attorney Syfert regularly handles Chapter 794 matters in the context of sexual battery defense and represents clients throughout Northeast Florida. For legal consultation, call 904-383-7448.