Is harassment a felony?

Harassment generally means contacting or following someone, or repeatedly doing things that alarm or annoy them, with intent to harass, annoy, alarm or abuse. Most states list specific acts, such as repeated calls, obscene or threatening messages, following a person in public, or physical contact.^1,2,3

New York's second-degree harassment covers striking or shoving someone, following a person in a public place, or a course of conduct that alarms or seriously annoys and serves no legitimate purpose. Pennsylvania's list includes following someone in public, repeated anonymous communication, and repeated communication at extremely inconvenient hours. Texas covers, among other acts, threats, repeated phone calls and tracking someone's car or property without consent. Illinois and Ohio focus on phone and electronic communication.

Most states cover harassment by phone, text, email and social media, not just in person. These laws often have their own names, such as telecommunications harassment, harassment by computer or cyberstalking.^{3,4,5,6,7,8,9}

Texas covers repeated electronic communications, including text messages and social media posts. California covers repeated contact by phone or electronic communication device made with intent to annoy or harass. Illinois covers harassment through electronic communications. Ohio covers telecommunications harassment, including posting a statement or image on a website to abuse, threaten or harass another person. North Carolina covers repeated emails or electronic communications meant to abuse, annoy or harass, under its cyberstalking law. Virginia covers obscene language and threats made over a phone with intent to coerce, intimidate or harass, including electronically transmitted messages received or sent by cell phone or another wireless device, and by computer.

Harassment is mainly about unwanted conduct or contact meant to annoy or alarm. Stalking is a pattern of conduct directed at one person that causes fear or serious emotional distress, and it is graded more seriously. In some states, repeated harassment can be charged as stalking.^2,3,10

Texas stalking requires conduct on more than one occasion as part of the same scheme or course of conduct, and it can be based on conduct that is an offense under the harassment law. Pennsylvania stalking requires intent to place the person in reasonable fear of bodily injury or to cause substantial emotional distress. In Florida, repeated harassment of a person falls under the stalking law, which covers someone who willfully, maliciously and repeatedly follows, harasses or cyberstalks another person, and it defines harass as a course of conduct that causes substantial emotional distress and serves no legitimate purpose.

In the nine states checked here, basic harassment is a misdemeanor or a lesser offense. New York's second-degree harassment is a violation, below a misdemeanor, and Pennsylvania treats some harassment as a summary offense.^{1,2,3,4,6,8,11,12,13,14}

Texas makes harassment a Class B misdemeanor, Illinois a Class B misdemeanor, Ohio a first-degree misdemeanor on a first offense, and North Carolina and Virginia a Class 2 and a Class 1 misdemeanor respectively. California treats its harassing-contact law as a misdemeanor. Florida makes harassing phone calls a second-degree misdemeanor. New York's first-degree harassment is a class B misdemeanor. Pennsylvania makes physical contact, following in public and a course of conduct with no legitimate purpose summary offenses, and lewd or threatening communication or repeated communication a third-degree misdemeanor.

Repeat offenses can turn harassment into a felony. Ohio makes telecommunications harassment a felony of the fifth degree on each offense after the first. Illinois makes electronic or phone harassment a Class 4 felony after three or more prior violations in the last 10 years, or a prior violation against the same victim or the victim's family or household.^3,6,12,15

Many states raise the grade only one step. Texas makes harassment a Class A misdemeanor, instead of Class B, if the person has a prior conviction under the harassment law. Illinois makes a second or later violation a Class A misdemeanor if the felony conditions do not apply. New York's first-degree harassment is a class B misdemeanor, but a second conviction within 10 years is aggravated harassment in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor.

A threat to kill or a court order can raise harassment to a felony in some states. Illinois makes harassment a Class 4 felony if the person threatened to kill the victim or a family or household member, or was under pretrial release, probation or an order of protection barring contact with the victim.^2,3,10,12,15

Pennsylvania does not make harassment a felony, but it raises the grade of its lowest harassment offenses by one degree if the person previously violated a protection from abuse order involving the same victim or a family or household member. Florida's stalking law, which covers harassing a person repeatedly, makes it a third-degree felony to stalk someone after a court injunction or other court-imposed prohibition, or to stalk with a credible threat. In Texas and New York, a threat in a harassing communication is a misdemeanor under the harassment laws.

Who the victim is, or why the person acted, can make harassment a felony in some states. Illinois makes electronic or phone harassment a Class 4 felony when the person is 18 or older and the victim is under 18. Texas makes harassing a judge a state jail felony.^3,12,16

In Texas, harassing a court employee is a Class A misdemeanor, and a state jail felony if the person has a prior conviction under the harassment law. Harassing a judge with a prior conviction is a third-degree felony. New York makes aggravated harassment in the first degree a class E felony in specific bias-motivated situations, such as damaging a place of worship by more than $50, placing a swastika or a noose on property without permission, burning a cross in public view, or a bias-motivated physical attack by someone previously convicted of that same offense, or of first-degree aggravated harassment within the past 10 years.

Repeated harassment can be charged as stalking, which is a felony in some states. In Texas, conduct that is an offense under the harassment law, repeated on more than one occasion as part of the same scheme, can be charged as stalking, a third-degree felony, if it also makes the person feel harassed or afraid and would have that effect on a reasonable person.^2,3

Pennsylvania treats a first stalking offense as a first-degree misdemeanor and a second or later offense as a third-degree felony. A first offense is also a third-degree felony if the person was previously convicted of a crime of violence, or violated a protective order, involving the same victim or a family or household member. See our page on stalking for how other states grade it.

Texas

Texas: Harassment is a Class B misdemeanor. It is a Class A misdemeanor with a prior conviction under the same law and in certain other situations. It is a state jail felony if the victim is a judge, and a third-degree felony if the victim is a judge and the person has a prior conviction.³

Penal Code § 42.07 lists conduct such as obscene or threatening communications, repeated phone calls, repeated electronic communications, and tracking someone's property or vehicle without consent. Harassing a court employee with a prior conviction under the law is a state jail felony. Stalking under § 42.072 is a separate third-degree felony.

Florida

Florida: Harassing someone willfully, maliciously and repeatedly is covered by the stalking law, a first-degree misdemeanor. Aggravated stalking is a third-degree felony. Obscene or harassing phone calls are a second-degree misdemeanor.^10,14

Aggravated stalking under § 784.048 covers stalking with a credible threat, stalking after an injunction or other court-imposed prohibition, and stalking a child under 16. Section 365.16 covers obscene or anonymous calls, repeated ringing and repeated calls made solely to harass.

California

California: Making obscene or threatening calls or electronic contacts with intent to annoy, or making repeated calls or contacts with intent to annoy or harass, is a misdemeanor under Penal Code § 653m.⁴

The law applies to telephones, smartphones, computers and other electronic communication devices. Good-faith calls and contacts are excluded, and subdivision (b) also excludes contacts made in the ordinary course of business. A court that grants probation may order counseling as a condition.

New York

New York: Harassment in the second degree is a violation. Harassment in the first degree is a class B misdemeanor, and aggravated harassment in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor. Aggravated harassment in the first degree is a class E felony.^1,11,15,16

First-degree harassment requires intentionally and repeatedly harassing someone in a way that places them in reasonable fear of physical injury. Second-degree aggravated harassment covers threats made by phone, computer or mail, and phone calls with no purpose of legitimate communication, made with intent to harass or threaten. First-degree aggravated harassment requires one of the bias-related acts listed in § 240.31.

Illinois

Illinois: Harassment by telephone or through electronic communications is a Class B misdemeanor. A second or later violation is a Class A misdemeanor. It is a Class 4 felony in seven listed situations.^5,12

The felony situations include three or more prior violations in the last 10 years, a prior violation against the same victim or the victim's family or household, being under pretrial release, probation or an order of protection barring contact, threatening to kill the victim or a family or household member, a forcible felony conviction in the last 10 years, harassing a child under 13 when the person is at least 16, and an adult harassing a person under 18. A second or later misdemeanor conviction carries at least 14 days in jail or 240 hours of public or community service.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania: Harassment is a summary offense when it involves physical contact, following someone in public, or a course of conduct with no legitimate purpose. It is a third-degree misdemeanor when it involves lewd, threatening or obscene communication or repeated communication.²

Cyber harassment of a child, a continuing course of seriously disparaging statements or threats made by electronic means, is also a third-degree misdemeanor. Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 2709(c), the summary offenses are graded one degree higher if the person previously violated a protection from abuse order involving the same victim or a family or household member. Harassment itself is not a felony in § 2709.

Ohio

Ohio: Telecommunications harassment is a first-degree misdemeanor on a first offense and a fifth-degree felony on each later offense.⁶

If the person threatens to damage or destroy property and the resulting economic harm is $1,000 to under $7,500, the offense is a fifth-degree felony. It is a fourth-degree felony at $7,500 to under $150,000 and a third-degree felony at $150,000 or more. Posting a text statement, audio statement or image on a website to abuse, threaten or harass is also covered.

North Carolina

North Carolina: Harassing telephone calls and harassing emails or electronic communications are Class 2 misdemeanors.^7,13

G.S. 14-196 covers repeated calls to abuse, annoy, threaten or harass, and G.S. 14-196.3 covers repeated emails or electronic communications for the same purpose.

Virginia

Virginia: Using obscene or indecent language, or threatening an illegal or immoral act, over a phone or by computer with intent to coerce, intimidate or harass is a Class 1 misdemeanor.^8,9

The telephone law, § 18.2-427, requires intent to coerce, intimidate or harass, and it covers electronically transmitted messages received or sent by cell phone or another wireless device. The computer law, § 18.2-152.7:1, requires the same intent.

Federal law makes it a crime to use a phone or other telecommunications device in interstate or foreign communications to harass someone. The law covers anonymous calls or messages made with intent to abuse, threaten or harass, and repeated calls or communications made solely to harass. The penalty is a fine, up to two years in prison, or both.^17,18

This is 47 U.S.C. § 223(a). It also covers causing someone's phone to ring repeatedly or continuously with intent to harass, and sending an obscene communication with intent to abuse, threaten or harass. Federal law does not give this section a letter grade, but an offense with a maximum prison term of more than one year and less than five years is classified as a Class E felony under 18 U.S.C. § 3559(a). Federal stalking law is covered on our stalking page.