Georgia has no separate crime called domestic violence. A handful of ordinary offenses are reclassified as family violence when they are committed between people in certain relationships, and the classification changes what happens next.
The Relationships
OCGA 19-13-1 defines “family violence” as certain acts occurring “between past or present spouses, persons who are parents of the same child, parents and children, stepparents and stepchildren, foster parents and foster children, or other persons living or formerly living in the same household.” Reasonable discipline administered by a parent in the form of corporal punishment, restraint, or detention is excluded.
The Offenses
Simple assault (OCGA 16-5-20), simple battery (OCGA 16-5-23), battery (OCGA 16-5-23.1), aggravated assault (OCGA 16-5-21), and aggravated battery (OCGA 16-5-24) each carry a family violence subsection that applies when the parties stand in one of those relationships. The relationship is an element the State has to prove, and it is not limited to married couples or to male defendants. In Crider v. State, 356 Ga. App. 36 (2020), a woman was convicted of family violence aggravated assault and family violence aggravated battery for shooting the boyfriend she had been living with.
The Criminal List Is Narrower
Each of those criminal subsections repeats the relationships in OCGA 19-13-1 with one change: it reaches “other persons excluding siblings living or formerly living in the same household.” A man argued from that carve-out that the superior court could not enter a family violence protective order against him for punching his brother and pulling a gun on him. The Court of Appeals disagreed in Jones v. Spruill, 337 Ga. App. 200 (2016), reasoning that if the legislature had meant to exclude siblings from the Family Violence Act too, it knew how to say so.
So the same incident can support a protective order without supporting the enhanced criminal charge.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!