CALIFORNIA LAW
CALIFORNIA PENAL CODE
Updated for 01/01/2015
TITLE OF THE ACT
(Heading enacted 1872.)
1.
This Act shall be known as The Penal Code of California, and is divided into four parts, as follows:
I. — OF CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.
II. — OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.
III. — OF THE STATE PRISON AND COUNTY JAILS.
IV. — OF PREVENTION OF CRIMES AND APPREHENSION OF CRIMINALS.
(Amended by Stats. 1985, Ch. 367, Sec. 1.)
THE PENAL CODE OF CALIFORNIA
PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS
(Preliminary Provisions enacted 1872.)
2.
This Code takes effect at twelve o'clock, noon, on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-three.
(Enacted 1872.)
3.
No part of it is retroactive, unless expressly so declared.
(Enacted 1872.)
4.
The rule of the common law, that penal statutes are to be strictly construed, has no application to this Code. All its provisions are to be construed according to the fair import of their terms, with a view to effect its objects and to promote justice.
(Enacted 1872.)
5.
The provisions of this Code, so far as they are substantially the same as existing statutes, must be construed as continuations thereof, and not as new enactments.
(Enacted 1872.)
6.
No act or omission, commenced after twelve o'clock noon of the day on which this Code takes effect as a law, is criminal or punishable, except as prescribed or authorized by this Code, or by some of the statutes which it specifies as continuing in force and as not affected by its provisions, or by some ordinance, municipal, county, or township regulation, passed or adopted, under such statutes and in force when this Code takes effect. Any act or omission commenced prior to that time may be inquired of, prosecuted, and punished in the same manner as if this Code had not been passed.
(Enacted 1872.)
7.
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; the singular number includes the plural, and the plural the singular; the word “person” includes a corporation as well as a natural person; the word “county” includes “city and county”; writing includes printing and typewriting; 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”; signature or subscription includes mark, when the person cannot write, his or her name being written near it, by a person who writes his or her own name as a witness; provided, that when a signature is made by mark it must, in order that the same may be acknowledged or serve as the signature to any sworn statement, be witnessed by two persons who must subscribe their own names as witnesses thereto.
The following words have in this code the signification attached to them in this section, unless otherwise apparent from the context:
1. The word “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, or to injure another, or to acquire any advantage.
2. The words “neglect,” “negligence,” “negligent,” and “negligently” import a want of such attention to the nature or probable consequences of the act or omission as a prudent man ordinarily bestows in acting in his own concerns.
3. The word “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. The words “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. The 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.
6. The word “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 his or her action, vote, or opinion, in any public or official capacity.
7. The word “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 subdivision (c) of Section 651 of the Harbors and Navigation Code.
8. The words “peace officer” signify any one of the officers mentioned in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2.
9. The word “magistrate” signifies any one of the officers mentioned in Section 808.
10. The word “property” includes both real and personal property.
11. The words “real property” are coextensive with lands, tenements, and hereditaments.
12. The words “personal property” include money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt.
13. The word “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. The word “will” includes codicil.
15. The word “writ” signifies an order or precept in writing, issued in the name of the people, or of a court or judicial officer, and the word “process” a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings.
16. Words and phrases must be construed according to the context and the approved usage of the language; but technical words and phrases, and such others as may have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in law, must be construed according to such peculiar and appropriate
