Under California Penal Code section 288, the statute of limitations depends almost entirely on when the offense occurred. For any lewd or lascivious act on a child under 14 committed on or after January 1, 2017, prosecutors can file charges at any time, with no deadline whatsoever. Older offenses fall under a layered set of rules that can still leave the door open decades later, and several exceptions can revive cases even after the normal window has closed.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 288
Offenses With No Filing Deadline
The Justice for Victims Act (Senate Bill 813) took effect on January 1, 2017 and amended Penal Code 799 to eliminate the statute of limitations for Penal Code 288 offenses. Any qualifying act committed on or after that date can be prosecuted at any point in the future.
The elimination also reaches back to older offenses, but with one condition: the prior statute of limitations must not have already expired by January 1, 2017. If even a single day remained on the clock when SB 813 took effect, the case became open-ended. Because California had been extending filing deadlines for child sex offenses in the years before 2017, this pulls a substantial range of older conduct into the no-deadline category.
The Victim’s 40th Birthday Rule
For Penal Code 288 cases where the no-deadline rule does not apply, Penal Code 801.1 allows prosecution any time before the victim turns 40.2California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 801.1 This covers offenses committed on or after January 1, 2015, along with older offenses whose statute of limitations had not yet expired by that date. It matters most for cases falling in the gap between the 2015 and 2017 effective dates, where the prior deadline ran out before SB 813 could eliminate it but after the 40th-birthday rule took hold.
The 10-Year Fallback for the Oldest Cases
If neither the no-deadline rule nor the 40th-birthday rule reaches the case, Penal Code 801.1 provides a 10-year period from the date of the offense. This backstop applies to felony sex offenses requiring registration under Penal Code 290, a category that includes Penal Code 288 violations. Once that 10-year window closed without charges being filed, and without any of the exceptions below reviving the case, the prosecution window shut permanently.
Delayed Reporting by the Victim
California law recognizes that victims of childhood sexual abuse often come forward years or decades later. Penal Code 803(f) creates a path to prosecution even after the standard deadline has expired.3California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 803 – Time of Commencing Criminal Actions When a person of any age reports to a California law enforcement agency that they were the victim of a Penal Code 288 offense while under 18, prosecutors get a fresh one-year window from the date of that report to file a criminal complaint.
Several conditions attach. The standard filing deadline must have already passed. The offense must have involved “substantial sexual conduct,” defined under Penal Code 1203.066 as penetration, oral copulation, or masturbation of either the victim or the offender.4California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1203.066 Independent evidence must also corroborate the victim’s account. If the victim is 21 or older when they report, that corroborating evidence must clearly and convincingly support the allegation. Victims under 21 at the time of reporting face a lower corroboration threshold.
DNA Identification
Penal Code 803(g) creates a separate revival path tied to forensic identification. If DNA testing conclusively establishes a suspect’s identity, prosecutors can file within one year of that identification, even if the standard statute of limitations has long since expired. This applies to offenses requiring sex offender registration, which includes Penal Code 288.
Strict timing rules govern the underlying analysis. For offenses committed before January 1, 2001, the DNA evidence must have been analyzed no later than January 1, 2004. For offenses committed on or after January 1, 2001, the analysis must have occurred within two years of the offense. If those analysis windows were missed, the exception does not apply. In practice, this exception matters most when biological evidence was collected and processed promptly but the suspect stayed unidentified until a later database match.
Events That Pause the Clock
Separate from the exceptions that create new filing windows, California law pauses the statute of limitations in certain situations. Time that passes during a pause does not count against the deadline.
The most common trigger is the suspect leaving California. Any time the defendant spends outside the state after the offense does not count toward the statute of limitations, up to a maximum of three years. Someone with a 10-year deadline who spent two years living in another state would face an effective 12-year window. The clock also pauses during any period when criminal charges for the same conduct are already pending against the same person in a California court.
For offenses that now carry no deadline under Penal Code 799, tolling is irrelevant. There is no clock to pause when there is no deadline.
Civil Lawsuit Deadlines
Criminal prosecution is not the only exposure. Victims can also bring civil lawsuits for monetary damages, and the deadlines there have been expanded dramatically.
For childhood sexual assaults that occurred on or after January 1, 2024, California Code of Civil Procedure 340.1 imposes no time limit at all. A victim can sue the perpetrator, or any person or entity whose wrongful conduct contributed to the abuse, at any point in their lifetime.5California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 340.1 If the victim proves the abuse was covered up, the court can award up to three times the normal damages against the party responsible for the cover-up. No government claim filing is required before suing a public entity under this section.
For assaults that occurred before January 1, 2024, the prior version of the law applies. Under AB 218, which took effect in 2020, victims had until age 40 to sue, or five years from the date they discovered that adult psychological harm was connected to the childhood abuse, whichever came later.6California Legislative Information. Assembly Bill 218 AB 218 also opened a three-year revival window running from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022, during which victims whose claims had already expired could file anyway. That revival window has closed. Claims based on pre-2024 conduct that fall outside both the standard deadlines and the revival window are time-barred.
When Federal Deadlines May Also Apply
Conduct that violates Penal Code 288 can sometimes trigger federal charges as well, and federal law uses different clocks. Under 18 U.S.C. 3283, federal prosecution for the sexual or physical abuse of a child under 18 can be brought during the lifetime of the victim or within 10 years of the offense, whichever is longer.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3283 – Offenses Against Children On the civil side, the Eliminating Limits to Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims Act of 2022 removed all time limits for federal civil claims under 18 U.S.C. 2255, so survivors can sue in federal court at any point regardless of when the abuse occurred.8GovInfo. Eliminating Limits to Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims Act of 2022