Domestic violence laws in Delaware operate on two tracks at once: a civil track that lets victims get a Protection From Abuse order fast, and a criminal track that can send an abuser to prison, strip firearm rights for life, and reshape custody of any shared children. The definition of abuse is broad, covering physical harm, threats, stalking, financial control, and patterns of coercive behavior between family members, partners, and former partners.
What Counts as Domestic Violence in Delaware
Delaware defines “abuse” in Title 10, section 1041 of the state code, and that civil definition drives both protective orders and related criminal enforcement. It covers causing or attempting to cause physical injury or a sexual offense, placing someone in fear of physical harm, destroying or taking property (including harming a pet or service animal), alarming conduct likely to cause fear or emotional distress, trespassing where the victim lives, child abuse, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and coercion.1Justia. Delaware Code 10-1041 – Definitions
Two pieces of that definition often surprise people. Financial abuse counts: maintaining overwhelming control over another person’s money, forbidding them from working or attending school without justification, or taking their assets all qualify. And a catch-all provision reaches “any other conduct which a reasonable person under the circumstances would find threatening or harmful,” which lets courts address patterns of control that don’t slot neatly into the listed categories.1Justia. Delaware Code 10-1041 – Definitions
The conduct only counts as domestic violence when it happens between members of a “protected class”: family members, former spouses, people who live together as a couple (with or without children), people who live apart but share a child, and people in a current or former substantive dating relationship. Acquaintances and ordinary professional relationships fall outside the statute.1Justia. Delaware Code 10-1041 – Definitions
Protection From Abuse Orders
A Protection From Abuse order, or PFA, is the primary civil tool for keeping an abuser away. Petitions are filed in Family Court, there is no filing fee, and the victim can file directly. The Division of Child Protective Services or the Division of Adult Protective Services can also file on behalf of someone who can’t file for themselves.2FindLaw. Delaware Code 10-1042 – Commencement of Proceedings
Emergency and Final Orders
An emergency PFA can be issued the same day on the petitioner’s sworn statement alone, without the abuser being present or notified in advance. A full hearing follows within 15 days, and the court can extend the emergency order up to 30 days to allow for service on the respondent or to keep protection in place.3Justia. Delaware Code 10-1043 – Ex Parte Orders and Emergency Hearings After a hearing where both sides can present evidence, the court can issue a final PFA lasting up to two years, and longer in cases involving severe abuse or ongoing risk.
What a PFA Can Order
PFAs are flexible. A single order can:
- Bar the respondent from contacting, approaching, or communicating with the petitioner.
- Grant the petitioner exclusive possession of the shared home regardless of whose name is on the lease or deed.
- Award temporary custody of shared children and set supervised visitation if needed.
- Order child support, spousal support, and temporary housing costs.
- Order the respondent to pay medical and dental expenses, counseling, lost earnings, property repair or replacement, moving costs, and attorney’s fees.
- Require the respondent to surrender all firearms and projectile weapons to a police officer or to a federally licensed firearms dealer in Delaware, and prohibit possession for the duration of the order.
- Order either party into counseling or a treatment program.
What Happens if the Order Is Violated
Violating a PFA is criminal contempt. A first offense is a Class A misdemeanor. It rises to a Class F felony when the violation caused physical injury or involved the use or threatened use of a deadly weapon or firearm. Anyone convicted under aggravated circumstances, or with two or more prior PFA contempt convictions, faces a minimum 15-day jail sentence.5Justia. Delaware Code 11-1271A – Criminal Contempt of a Domestic Violence Protective Order Officers can arrest a suspected violator without a warrant, even when the violation didn’t happen in front of them.6Justia. Delaware Code 11-1904 – Arrest Without Warrant
Lethal Violence Protective Orders
Delaware also has a separate order focused only on firearms. A Lethal Violence Protective Order (LVPO) bars a person from owning, buying, possessing, or having access to firearms or projectile weapons. It does not require a domestic relationship, and it can be sought by law enforcement or by family members.
The Justice of the Peace Court can issue an emergency LVPO on a preponderance-of-the-evidence finding that the respondent poses an immediate danger of causing physical injury by having firearms. A longer-term LVPO requires the Superior Court to find that danger by clear and convincing evidence, and a final LVPO can last up to five years.7Delaware Code Online. Delaware Code Title 10 Chapter 77 – Lethal Violence Protective Order
Criminal Charges and Penalties
When domestic violence involves criminal conduct, prosecutors pick from several specific offenses.
Assault
Third-degree assault covers intentionally or recklessly causing physical injury, or causing injury through criminal negligence with a deadly weapon. It is a Class A misdemeanor, which carries up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,300.8Justia. Delaware Code 11-611 – Assault in the Third Degree9FindLaw. Delaware Code 11-4206 – Sentence for Misdemeanors First-degree assault, a Class B felony, covers intentionally causing serious physical injury with a deadly weapon, permanent disfigurement, or recklessly creating a substantial risk of death that results in serious injury. A Class B felony carries 2 to 25 years.10Justia. Delaware Code 11-613 – Assault in the First Degree, Class B Felony11Justia. Delaware Code 11-4205 – Sentence for Felonies
Strangulation
Delaware treats strangulation as its own felony, separate from assault, because of the lethality risk. Knowingly or intentionally impeding someone’s breathing or blood circulation by pressure on the neck or throat is a Class D felony, which carries up to eight years. It rises to a Class B felony if the person used a weapon, caused serious injury, was already subject to a protective order, or committed the act against a pregnant person or a child. Visible injury is not required for conviction, and a repeat strangulation offense within five years carries a minimum one-year prison sentence.12Justia. Delaware Code 11-607 – Strangulation or Suffocation, Class B or D Felony
Stalking, Threats, and Coercion
Stalking requires a “course of conduct” of three or more separate incidents directed at one person that would cause a reasonable person to fear physical injury or suffer significant mental distress. Following, monitoring, surveilling, threatening, and interfering with someone’s job or medical care can all count.13Justia. Delaware Code 11-1312 – Stalking Terroristic threatening covers threats to commit a crime likely to cause death or serious injury.14Justia. Delaware Code 11-621 – Terroristic Threatening Coercion, a Class A misdemeanor, applies when someone compels another person to act or refrain through threats of physical harm, property damage, criminal accusation, exposure of secrets, or similar conduct calculated to cause material harm.15Justia. Delaware Code 11-791 – Acts Constituting Coercion, Class A Misdemeanor
Repeat Offenders
Delaware’s habitual-criminal statute exposes repeat offenders to dramatically steeper sentences. Someone with three prior felony convictions who commits another felony can be sentenced to life in prison. When the offenses include violent felonies, mandatory minimums start at half the statutory maximum and climb from there depending on the number and type of priors.16Justia. Delaware Code 11-4214 – Habitual Criminal, Life Sentence
Loss of Firearm Rights After a Domestic Violence Conviction
Firearm consequences are among the most far-reaching in Delaware law, and even a misdemeanor conviction can be permanent.
Under state law, anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence is prohibited from possessing or purchasing firearms. The qualifying offenses include assault, reckless endangering, terroristic threatening, unlawful sexual contact, and coercion when committed against a family member, former spouse, cohabitant, co-parent, or dating partner. Anyone subject to an active Family Court PFA is also prohibited from possessing firearms for the life of the order.17Justia. Delaware Code 11-1448 – Possession and Purchase of Deadly Weapons by Persons Prohibited
Federal law adds a second layer. Under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(9), anyone convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence is prohibited from shipping, transporting, possessing, or receiving any firearm or ammunition.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts The federal ban reaches convictions predating the 1996 law, a state-court expungement does not restore federal firearm rights, and there is no exemption for military personnel or law enforcement officers.
Effect on Child Custody
A domestic violence conviction reshapes custody proceedings. Delaware law creates a rebuttable presumption that no person convicted of domestic violence should receive sole or joint custody of any child, and that no child should primarily live with that person. Qualifying offenses include any felony, third-degree assault, reckless endangering, unlawful sexual contact, and criminal contempt of a protective order based on physical abuse or threats.19Justia. Delaware Code 13-705A – Rebuttable Presumption Against Custody or Residence of Minor Child to Perpetrator of Domestic Violence
Rebuttable means the court starts from the position that the abuser should not have custody, and the convicted parent carries the burden of proving otherwise. Overcoming that presumption is difficult, especially when the abuse was recent or severe. Convictions can also carry immigration consequences, including deportation, for noncitizens.
Financial Recovery and Housing After Leaving
A PFA can order the abuser to pay for concrete losses caused by the abuse: medical and dental expenses, counseling, lost earnings, property repair or replacement, moving costs, and attorney’s fees.4Justia. Delaware Code 10-1045 – Relief Available, Duration of Orders, Modification, and Termination A separate civil suit for assault and battery is also possible, using the lower “preponderance of the evidence” standard, which sometimes succeeds even after criminal charges are dropped or an acquittal.
Delaware’s Victims’ Compensation Assistance Program (VCAP) helps cover out-of-pocket expenses from a crime, including medical and dental bills, mental health counseling, and moving costs up to $1,000. No single award exceeds $25,000. A criminal conviction isn’t required to apply, but the crime generally must have been reported to law enforcement.20Delaware Department of Justice. Compensation Program21Delaware Code Online. Delaware Code Title 11 Chapter 90 – Compensation for Innocent Victims of Crime
On housing, a PFA can grant the victim exclusive possession of the shared home regardless of whose name is on the lease or deed.4Justia. Delaware Code 10-1045 – Relief Available, Duration of Orders, Modification, and Termination For federally subsidized renters, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) lets Section 8 voucher holders move with continued rental assistance, allows survivors to request an emergency transfer for safety, and bars a landlord from evicting a tenant solely because they are a victim of domestic violence.22HUD.gov. Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
Where to Get Help in Delaware
For anyone in immediate danger, calling 911 is the fastest route. Beyond that, several Delaware organizations provide direct support:
- The Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence (DCADV) coordinates crisis intervention, advocacy, and legal referrals statewide, and runs a 24/7 hotline for safety planning.
- Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI) provides free legal help for victims seeking protective orders and navigating Family Court.
- Emergency shelter programs, such as the SAFE Program, offer immediate shelter and longer-term case management.
- People’s Place and similar agencies offer trauma-informed therapy for survivors and children.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 also provides confidential support around the clock.