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What Are the Penalties for Criminal Threats?

State and federal laws vary considerably when it comes to penalties for criminal threats, ranging from misdemeanors to serious felonies. Some laws impose harsher penalties when the defendant:

• carries out the threat while armed with a deadly weapon or makes the victim believe the same is true
• makes repeated threats or stalks the victim
• makes a threat of retaliation against a judge, officer, juror, lawyer, or other public safety or court official
• threatens someone based on hate, bias, or prejudice, or
• communicates threats that cause an evacuation of a school, government building, public transportation vehicle or hub, or place of assembly.

State Penalties for Criminal Threats

Here are some examples of state penalties for criminal threats.

• California makes it a wobbler offense to engage in criminal threats. A person faces up to a year in jail or time in prison. (Cal. Penal Code § 422.)
• In Colorado, threats or menacing without a weapon carries class 1 misdemeanor penalties, but implying or having a weapon increases the penalty to a class 5 felony. (Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-3-206.)
• Ohio makes it a fourth-degree misdemeanor to threaten physical harm and a first-degree misdemeanor to threaten serious physical harm (Ohio Code §§ 2903.21, .22.)
• Virginia makes it a Class 6 felony to threaten death or serious bodily injury. (Va. Code § 18.2-60.)

Federal Penalties for Criminal Threats

Individuals who communicate a threat to injure another can face federal felony charges if they use a form of interstate commerce, such as email, mail, phone calls, texts, or online messaging, to send the threat. This federal offense carries up to 5 years in federal prison. (18 U.S.C. § 875.) Sending such threats repeatedly can lead to federal criminal stalking charges and up to 10 years in prison. (18 U.S.C. §§ 2261, 2261A.) Depending on the circumstances of the threats or the intended recipient, other federal penalties may apply