CSC 3rd Degree in Michigan: Penalties, Registration, and Defenses

CSC 3rd degree in Michigan is a felony charge for sexual penetration committed under one of roughly a dozen specific circumstances listed in MCL 750.520d, and it carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in state prison. A conviction cannot be resolved with probation, triggers mandatory sex offender registration for life in most cases, and creates lasting consequences for firearm rights, employment, housing, and immigration status.

What Makes Conduct a Third-Degree Charge

Every CSC 3rd degree case has two elements the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt. First, that sexual penetration occurred. Second, that at least one of the qualifying circumstances in the statute existed at the time. Miss either one and the charge fails.¹

Penetration is defined broadly. It covers sexual intercourse, oral sex, anal intercourse, and any other intrusion of a body part or object into another person’s genital or anal openings, “however slight.” Ejaculation is not required.² That “however slight” language means the fight in most cases is not over whether penetration technically occurred but over which circumstance the prosecution is invoking.

The Qualifying Circumstances

The statute lists several distinct grounds. Any one of them, combined with penetration, is enough.

The Victim Was 13, 14, or 15

This is the most commonly charged version of the offense. Age alone establishes the second element. The prosecution does not need to show force, threats, or coercion, and consent from the younger person is not a defense, because Michigan treats anyone under 16 as legally incapable of consenting to penetration.¹

Force or Coercion

Force or coercion covers more than physical violence. Under the statute, it includes:

Actual physical force or violence.
Threats of immediate force the victim believes the actor can carry out.
Threats of future retaliation, kidnapping, or extortion against the victim or another person.
A medical examination or treatment conducted in a way recognized as unethical.
Concealment or surprise that catches the victim off guard.

Mentally Incapable, Mentally Incapacitated, or Physically Helpless Victims

Michigan separates three conditions. A person is mentally incapable when a mental disease or defect prevents understanding of the act. A person is mentally incapacitated when drugs, alcohol, or another substance temporarily removes the ability to appraise or control their own conduct. A person is physically helpless when unconscious, asleep, or unable to communicate a lack of consent.²

The prosecution only has to show the actor knew or had reason to know about the condition. Obvious signs of intoxication or unconsciousness can meet that standard even without proof of actual knowledge.¹

Abuse of a Position of Authority

Several subsections target people whose role gives them power over the other person. Each of these relationships is its own ground for the charge:

Employees or contractors of a hospital, jail, prison, nursing home, school, or similar facility, when the other person is under that facility’s jurisdiction.
Physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors during the course of treatment or examination.
Clergy during spiritual counseling or examination.
Teachers, school administrators, and coaches, when the student is 16 or 17 and attends the actor’s public or private school.

These grounds apply even when the other person is old enough to consent in other settings, because the power imbalance makes consent legally suspect.

Family Relationship

Penetration between people related by blood or affinity to the third degree, which includes uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, and first cousins, is its own ground for the charge, even between adults. It does not apply to legally married spouses. The statute provides an affirmative defense if the other person held authority over the defendant and used it to coerce the act.³

During Another Felony

When penetration occurs during the commission of any other felony, that penetration is itself a CSC 3rd degree charge stacked on top of whatever charges arise from the underlying crime.

Aided by Others

If the actor is helped by one or more people and either uses force or coercion, or knew or should have known the other person was incapable or helpless, the charge applies. Accomplices face their own criminal liability.

The 15-Year Maximum and No Probation

The statutory maximum is 15 years in prison.¹ What sets this offense apart from many other 15-year felonies is that MCL 771.1 places CSC 3rd degree on the list of crimes for which probation is not available.⁴ The judge must impose incarceration. The minimum sentence is set using Michigan’s sentencing guidelines based on the defendant’s prior record and offense-specific variables, and it cannot be zero. Fines and court costs may be added on top.

Firearm rights are lost as well. Michigan bars any convicted felon from possessing a firearm until at least three years after all fines, imprisonment, probation, and parole are complete. For “specified” felonies, that period is five years and requires a formal restoration of rights.⁵

Lifetime electronic monitoring, which attaches to CSC 1st and CSC 2nd degree convictions involving victims under 13, does not apply to CSC 3rd degree.⁶ A sentencing judge can still impose monitoring as a parole condition.

Mandatory Sex Offender Registration

A CSC 3rd degree conviction is a Tier III offense under Michigan’s Sex Offenders Registration Act, the most serious tier.⁷ Tier III means lifetime registration.

There is one narrow exception. Registration is not required when the victim was 13, 14, or 15, the defendant was no more than four years older, and the victim consented. Outside that fact pattern, registration is automatic.

Tier III registrants have to appear in person at their local law enforcement agency four times a year, on a schedule tied to their birth month.⁸ They also have to report within three business days any change in address, employment, school enrollment, or vehicle. Failing to comply is a separate felony.

Federal and state courts have been actively reviewing SORA’s constitutionality. A federal district court held in 2024 that the 2021 version of the act amounts to unconstitutional punishment, but the Sixth Circuit stayed that ruling in June 2025, and a Michigan Court of Appeals panel has held the 2021 amendments are not punishment. The 2021 SORA remains in effect while the litigation continues.

Defenses That Apply

Michigan law is clear on one point up front: the alleged victim is not required to resist physically for a charge to stand. Lack of resistance does not equal consent. Which defenses are actually available depends on which qualifying circumstance the prosecution is pursuing.

Consent is the classic defense for force-or-coercion cases. The defendant argues that the other person voluntarily agreed and that no force, threats, or coercion existed. Consent is not a defense when the charge is based on the other person’s age, because anyone under 16 cannot legally consent. It also does not help when the charge is based on mental incapacity, incapacitation, or physical helplessness.

For a charge grounded in a family relationship, the statute itself provides an affirmative defense: that the other person held authority over the defendant and used it to coerce the act. The defendant carries the burden of proving that defense by a preponderance of the evidence.³

Beyond those, defenses turn on facts. Challenging identification, attacking the reliability of forensic evidence, or contesting whether penetration occurred at all are common approaches, and the right strategy depends entirely on the case.

Consequences That Follow the Sentence

The prison term is only part of what a conviction produces.

Background Checks, Jobs, and Housing

A felony sex offense will show up on nearly every background check indefinitely. The Fair Credit Reporting Act limits how long some adverse information (like arrests without convictions) can be reported, but there is no federal cap on reporting actual convictions. Michigan employers can ask about felony history, and mandatory background checks in healthcare, education, and childcare typically screen out anyone with a sex offense record.

Housing is similarly constrained. In late 2025, the Department of Housing and Urban Development rescinded earlier guidance that had discouraged blanket criminal-history screening and directed public housing agencies to strictly enforce criminal-activity rules for tenants. That change makes federally assisted housing harder to access with a CSC conviction.

Immigration

For non-citizens, the stakes are especially high. Federal law defines “sexual abuse of a minor” as an aggravated felony.⁹ When a CSC 3rd degree conviction involves a victim under 18, immigration authorities may treat it as an aggravated felony, which triggers mandatory removal and bars almost all forms of relief, regardless of how long the person has lived in the United States and even for green card holders. If the alleged victim was an adult, the conviction may still be deportable as a “crime involving moral turpitude.” Any non-citizen facing this charge should talk to an immigration attorney before entering any plea.

How Third Degree Compares to the Other CSC Degrees

Michigan’s criminal sexual conduct statute covers four degrees, and confusion about which is which is common. The dividing line between the upper degrees (1st and 3rd) and the lower degrees (2nd and 4th) is not the act described but whether it involved penetration.

CSC 1st and 3rd both require sexual penetration. First degree applies when the surrounding circumstances are the most aggravated: the victim is under 13, a weapon is used, the actor causes serious personal injury, or force is used with the aid of accomplices. CSC 1st degree carries up to life in prison.

CSC 2nd and 4th involve sexual contact rather than penetration. Contact means touching intimate parts for a sexual purpose, without the intrusion that penetration requires. CSC 2nd degree covers contact under aggravated circumstances and carries up to 15 years. CSC 4th degree covers contact under less severe circumstances and carries up to 2 years.

Because penetration is the pivot, whether any intrusion occurred at all often determines whether a defendant is looking at a 2-year maximum or a 15-year one, which is why the statutory phrase “however slight” carries so much practical weight.

Second and Subsequent Offenses

Michigan enhances the penalty for anyone with a prior CSC conviction. Under MCL 750.520f, a second CSC conviction of any degree carries a mandatory minimum sentence of at least five years in prison. The enhancement applies across degrees, so a prior CSC 4th degree conviction can drive up the mandatory minimum on a new CSC 3rd degree charge. The judge cannot go below the enhanced minimum. Combined with the no-probation rule, a second offense effectively locks in a substantial prison term.

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 750.520d – Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Third Degree
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Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 750.520a – Definitions
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Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 750.520d – Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Third Degree
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Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 771.1 – Probation
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Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 750.224f – Possession of Firearm by Convicted Felon
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Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 750.520n – Lifetime Electronic Monitoring
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Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 28.722 – Definitions
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Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 28.725a – Verification of Domicile or Residence
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions