The offences under Act 54

It is the criminal catalogue of Act 54: the six offences available against someone who abuses their spouse, former spouse, the person they live with or lived with, the person they hold or held a consensual relationship with, or the person they had a child with. This guide says what the Act prints — the conduct and the fixed term of imprisonment — and nothing more. It does not say how your case will be charged or what sentence any particular person will receive.

All six offences are defined by the relationship between the people, not by where the acts took place. The Act names the spouse, former spouse, the person lived with or previously lived with, the person in a consensual relationship now or previously, and the person with whom a child was had, and insists in every article that this applies “regardless of the sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or immigration status of any of the people involved in the relationship”.

• That one of the relationships the Act names exists: spouse, former spouse, a person lived with or previously lived with, a person in a consensual relationship now or previously, or a person with whom a child was had.Verified against the official source
• For the abuse offence in Article 3.1 and for digital psychological violence, the Act expressly says no pattern of conduct need be proved.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Abuse: three years, no pattern needed

   Article 3.1 punishes with a fixed term of three years anyone who uses physical force or psychological or economic violence, intimidation or persecution against the covered person, to cause physical harm to them, to the victim’s, the children’s or the aggressor’s companion animal or pet, to property they value — other than what belongs privately to the offender — or to another person, or to cause grave emotional harm; it also punishes appropriating or retaining the victim’s private property. And it adds two things: “No proof of a pattern of conduct shall be necessary for the offence of abuse to be constituted”, and psychological violence also occurs through text messages, voicemail, email, social media or any digital medium, including satellite tracking systems, again with no pattern needing to be proved.

2. 2

   Step 2: Aggravated abuse: eight years, twelve circumstances

   Article 3.2 imposes eight years where the abuse concurs with one or more of these twelve: (a) entering the victim’s home, workplace, relatives’ residence, children’s school or the place where they are sheltered and committing the abuse there, in the case of separated spouses or cohabitants or where an order to vacate the residence was in place; (b) inflicting grave bodily harm; (c) committing it with a deadly weapon in circumstances not amounting to intent to kill or maim; (d) committing it in the presence of minors, “regardless of their age, capacity to understand or to verbalise fear”; (e) committing it after a protection order or an order in aid of the victim was issued; (f) inducing, inciting or forcing the person to take drugs or become intoxicated; (g) committing it while simultaneously abusing a minor under Act 57 of 11 May 2023; (h) committing it against a pregnant woman; (i) committing it against a person under sixteen where the aggressor is eighteen or older; (j) torturing or killing a companion animal or pet of the victim, the children or the aggressor; (k) using any technological device to determine or monitor a person’s location or movement, or that of their property, without their express authorisation; (l) committing it against or in the presence of an older adult or a person with disabilities related to the victim up to the fourth degree of consanguinity.

3. 3

   Step 3: Strangulation: ten years, fifteen if pregnant

   Article 3.2-A is a separate offence, added in 2024 and amended in 2026. It is a felony for anyone purposely, knowingly or recklessly to strangle, suffocate or positionally asphyxiate another person with whom they have or had an intimate-partner relationship, “regardless of whether that conduct produces a visible injury or causes prolonged harm”. The penalty is ten years’ imprisonment “without the right to the benefits conferred by the diversion programme provided in Article 3.6 of this Act”, and fifteen years where the victim was pregnant at the time. The offence may be proved by testimonial, circumstantial or expert evidence, and for Rule 72 purposes may only be reclassified to offences within this same Act.

4. 4

   Step 4: Threat: three years, or eight aggravated

   Article 3.3 punishes with three years anyone who threatens harm to the covered person, where the threat consists of (a) harming the victim, (b) harming property they value, other than what belongs privately to the offender or a third party, or (c) causing harm by abusing an animal or pet. The threat also occurs through text messages, voicemail, email, social media or any digital medium. And the article itself raises the penalty to eight years where the threat is made in the presence of minors; after a protection order or an order in aid of the victim was issued against the accused; where the victim is pregnant; or where it is committed using a bladed weapon or firearm as defined in the Puerto Rico Weapons Act of 2020.

5. 5

   Step 5: Restriction of liberty: eight years

   Article 3.4 punishes with a fixed term of eight years anyone who uses violence or intimidation against the covered person, or uses the pretext that they — or that person — suffers from mental illness or defect, in order to restrict their liberty with the victim’s knowledge. As in the other articles, the court may additionally impose the penalty of restitution.

6. 6

   Step 6: Sexual assault by a partner: fifty years

   Article 3.5 imposes a fixed term of fifty years on anyone who has non-consensual sexual relations with the covered person in any of these circumstances: (a) where they were compelled by force, violence, intimidation or threat of grave and immediate bodily harm; (b) where their capacity to consent was annulled or substantially diminished, without their knowledge or consent, through hypnotic, narcotic, depressant or stimulant means or similar substances or means; (c) where by mental illness or incapacity, temporary or permanent, the victim is unable to understand the nature of the act at the time it takes place; or (d) where they are forced or induced through abuse, physical or psychological violence to take part or become involved in unwanted sexual relations with third parties. And the article closes with a clock that does not run: the offence “does not prescribe where the victim is under eighteen (18) and the accused over eighteen (18) at the time the offence was committed”.

7. 7

   Step 7: Restitution comes on top of imprisonment

   All six articles repeat the same sentence: the court may impose the penalty of restitution in addition to the term of imprisonment established. It does not replace prison and does not depend on a separate civil suit existing.

These offences are prosecuted by the Ministerio Público before the Court of First Instance. The complaint is filed with the Police or before the prosecutor, and Article 3.9 provides that they sign and swear it, not the victim. If what you need is immediate protection rather than a criminal case, the protection order is sought at court and Article 5.1 says no charges need be filed to obtain it.

• Believing a pattern of conduct must be proved: Article 3.1 expressly says it need not.
• Thinking psychological violence must be face to face: the Act includes texts, voicemail, email, social media and satellite tracking.
• Assuming economic violence is not an offence: appropriating or retaining the victim’s private property is in Article 3.1.
• Believing strangulation only counts if it left marks: Article 3.2-A says “regardless of whether it produces a visible injury”.
• Assuming someone who strangles can take diversion: Article 3.2-A excludes it.
• Thinking tracking a partner’s phone is a grey area: Article 3.2(k) makes it an aggravating circumstance.
• Believing harming the pet does not count: it appears in Articles 3.1, 3.2(j) and 3.3(c).
• Assuming a threat without blows is not a felony: it is three years, or eight where an aggravator concurs.
• Believing there is no sexual assault within a marriage: Article 3.5 defines it and sets fifty years.
• Thinking that offence always prescribes: it does not where the victim was under eighteen and the accused over eighteen.
• Forgetting restitution: all six articles allow it in addition to imprisonment.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Justicia de Puerto Rico

  Justicia

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov