Physical abuse of a child: recklessly causing bodily harm is a serious felony in Wisconsin.
Certainly any felony charge is serious, but physical abuse of a child: recklessly causing bodily harm carries additional detrimental stigmas. Your friends may judge you, your family members may abandon you, and other members of society may try to judge you based purely on the allegation of child abuse. Charges involving children frequently invoke quick judgment without understanding the underlying facts of your case.
The criminal defense attorneys at Van Severen Law Office certainly recognize what you’re going through. We regularly defend individuals in your position. And finally, we understand. We certainly recognize that this is the most important, difficult fight of your life.
And that’s why we’re continually strive to fight for the very best results in any criminal case we defend. The child abuse defense attorneys at Van Severen Law Office regularly achieve positive results for their clients. And that will certainly be our goal in defending you.
To start fighting your case, contact one of our criminal defense lawyers at (414) 270-0202. Importantly, we answer phones 24/7 and want to help you through this.
What is physical abuse of a child: recklessly causing bodily harm?
Section 948.03(3)(b) of the Wisconsin Statutes prohibits this crime. The law indicates:
Whoever recklessly causes bodily harm to a child is guilty of a Class I felony.
Reckless child abuse requires the defendant’s actions demonstrate a conscious disregard for the safety of a child, not that the defendant was individually aware of that risk. In contrast, criminal recklessness is defined as when the actor creates an unreasonable and substantial risk of death or great bodily harm to another human being and the actor is aware of that risk. Thus, recklessly causing harm to a child is distinguished from criminal recklessness, because only the latter includes a subjective component. State v. Williams, 296 Wis. 2d 834.
Finally, the statutory language contains a few important terms. What is a child? Secondly, what does it mean to recklessly cause bodily harm? And finally, what’s bodily harm?
Section 948.01(1) defines “child” for purpose of this subsection: child “means a person who has not attained the age of 18 years, except that for purposes of prosecuting a person who is alleged to have violated a state or federal law, ‘child’ does not include a person who has attained the age of 17 years.
We’ll save the rest of the definitions for the jury instructions, which provide an easier definition of the crime.
