Policy Text
ISSUE: 25-36 TRAINING BULLETIN DATE: June 25, 2025
California Senate Bill 442: Sexual Battery Amendments
On September 29, 2024, California Governor Newsom signed SB 442, which made it a
crime to cause another person—against their will—to masturbate or touch an intimate
part of themselves, the accused, or a third person for sexual arousal, gratification, or
abuse. Pursuant to SB 442, effective January 1, 2025, Subsection (e)(1) of Penal Code
243.4 was amended to read as follows:
“Any person who touches an intimate part of another person, if the touching is
against the will of the person touched, and is for the specific purpose of sexual
arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, or any person who, for the
purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, causes
another, against that person’s will, to masturbate or touch an intimate part
of either of those persons or a third person, is guilty of misdemeanor sexual
battery, punishable by a fine not exceeding two thous