Domestic violence becomes a federal crime when the abuse crosses a state line, violates a protection order across jurisdictions, uses interstate mail or electronic communications to stalk, occurs on federal or tribal land, or involves a firearm possessed by someone who is barred from having one because of a prior domestic violence conviction or a qualifying restraining order. Most domestic violence is prosecuted under state law. The federal government steps in when an abuser exploits state borders, when the conduct falls inside federal territory, or when federal firearms restrictions are broken.
Crossing State Lines to Harm a Partner
The main federal domestic violence statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2261, makes it a crime to travel across a state line, enter or leave Indian country, or move within special federal territory with the intent to harm, harass, or intimidate a spouse, intimate partner, or dating partner, and then commit or attempt violence against that person.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261 – Interstate Domestic Violence The same statute also covers forcing a partner across state lines through coercion, threats, or fraud, and then committing violence against them.
Both versions require intent. An argument that happens to turn violent during a road trip is not a federal crime just because the car crossed a border. Prosecutors have to show the travel was for the purpose of harming or intimidating the partner. That is what separates targeted cross-border abuse from an ordinary domestic incident that happens near a state line.
Crossing State Lines to Violate a Protection Order
A parallel statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2262, makes it a federal crime to travel to another state or into Indian country with the intent to violate the parts of a protective order that prohibit violence, threats, harassment, contact, or physical proximity to the protected person, and then do it.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2262 – Interstate Violation of Protection Order The same applies when the abuser forces the victim across state lines and then violates the order.
This exists because protection orders have historically been hard to enforce across jurisdictions. An abuser could simply drive to a neighboring state where local police had no record of the order. Federal law closes that gap two ways. The cross-border violation is itself federal, and under 18 U.S.C. § 2265 every state, tribe, and territory must give full faith and credit to a valid protection order from another jurisdiction, meaning local police must enforce it as if their own court had issued it.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2265 – Full Faith and Credit Given to Protection Orders
Stalking Across State Lines or Through Electronic Communications
Federal stalking law under 18 U.S.C. § 2261A has two prongs. The first targets anyone who physically travels across state lines or into Indian country to engage in conduct that places another person in reasonable fear of death or serious injury, or causes substantial emotional distress.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261A – Stalking The second covers the same harmful conduct carried out through the mail, the internet, or any electronic communication service that operates across state lines.
The second prong is where most people run into federal stalking law in a domestic context without realizing it. The abuser never has to cross a border. Threatening emails, location-tracking through apps, fake social media profiles created to harass, floods of intimidating texts: any of these can qualify when the communications travel over interstate systems. The protection extends beyond the direct target to immediate family members, spouses, intimate partners, and even pets or service animals.
Firearms After a Domestic Violence Conviction or Restraining Order
The federal domestic violence law that reaches the largest number of people has nothing to do with crossing borders. Two provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 922 strip gun rights from people with domestic violence histories, and violating either one is a federal felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, a fine, or both.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 924 – Penalties
Misdemeanor Convictions
Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence is barred from possessing, buying, shipping, or receiving any firearm or ammunition.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts This is the Lautenberg Amendment, and it applies no matter whether the conviction came from a state, federal, or tribal court.
A “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” is any misdemeanor involving the use or attempted use of physical force, or the threatened use of a deadly weapon, committed by someone in a specific relationship with the victim: a current or former spouse, a parent or guardian, someone who shares a child with the victim, someone who lived with the victim as a spouse or in a similar role, or someone in a current or recent dating relationship.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 921 – Definitions A conviction does not count if the person was not represented by a lawyer and did not knowingly waive that right, or was entitled to a jury trial that they did not knowingly waive.
Restraining Orders
Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), a person subject to a qualifying domestic violence restraining order also cannot possess firearms or ammunition. The order qualifies if the person received actual notice and a chance to be heard before it was entered, the order prohibits harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child, and the order either includes a finding that the person is a credible threat to the partner’s physical safety or explicitly prohibits the use of physical force against them.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts The Supreme Court upheld this provision in United States v. Rahimi in 2024, holding that disarming a person found to pose a credible threat to an intimate partner is consistent with the Second Amendment.8Supreme Court of the United States. United States v Rahimi, 602 US 680 (2024)
The 15-year federal exposure for possession is often harsher than the original state misdemeanor that triggered the ban. Many people never realize they have lost their federal gun rights, and a single round of ammunition is enough to prosecute.
The 2022 Expansion to Dating Partners
Before 2022, the federal firearms ban for misdemeanor domestic violence convictions reached spouses, cohabitants, and co-parents, but not dating partners who had never lived with the victim. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, signed in June 2022, closed that gap by adding current and recent dating partners to the list of covered relationships.9Congress.gov. Text – 117th Congress (2021-2022) Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
A “dating relationship” means a continuing serious relationship of a romantic or intimate nature, judged by how long it lasted, what kind of relationship it was, and how often the people interacted. A casual acquaintance or ordinary social or business contact does not qualify.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 921 – Definitions The dating-partner version of the ban has a built-in sunset the spousal and cohabitant versions do not. A first-time offender with only one dating-violence conviction who is not otherwise prohibited from owning firearms gets their rights back automatically after five years, counted from the later of the conviction or the completion of any sentence, if no new qualifying offenses occur in the meantime.9Congress.gov. Text – 117th Congress (2021-2022) Bipartisan Safer Communities Act For spouses and cohabitants the ban is permanent unless the conviction is expunged or pardoned.
Federal Land and Tribal Jurisdiction
Conduct that occurs on a military installation, in a national park, or in other federal territory can be federal without any state line being crossed. In Indian country, jurisdiction can run three ways. The 2022 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act expanded tribal court authority to prosecute non-Indian defendants for domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, sexual violence, protection order violations, and several other offenses committed in Indian country.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 25 USC 1304 – Tribal Jurisdiction Over Covered Crimes That authority runs alongside federal and state jurisdiction, so a tribal prosecution does not block federal charges for the same conduct. Not all tribes have implemented the expansion, and tribes that do must meet specific due process requirements, including appointed defense counsel and jury pools that include non-Indians.
What Changes Once a Case Is Federal
Penalties under § 2261, § 2261A, and § 2262 all follow the same tiered structure, and they are generally harsher than what state courts impose for comparable conduct:
- Life in prison or any term of years if the victim dies.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261 – Interstate Domestic Violence
- Up to 20 years for permanent disfigurement or a life-threatening injury.
- Up to 10 years for serious bodily injury or use of a dangerous weapon.
- Up to 5 years in all other cases.
A one-year mandatory minimum applies when stalking violates an existing restraining order, no-contact order, or similar protective order, regardless of the harm inflicted. Fines can be added at every tier.
Restitution is mandatory, not discretionary. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2264 the judge must order the offender to pay the victim’s full losses, and cannot reduce the order because the defendant is broke or because the victim has insurance.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2264 – Restitution Covered losses include medical and psychological treatment, rehabilitation, transportation, temporary housing, child care, lost income, attorney fees and the cost of obtaining a civil protection order, veterinary care for a pet or service animal, and anything else directly caused by the offense. Restitution goes to the victim and is separate from any criminal fine.
Federal cases are investigated by agencies like the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys rather than local district attorneys. Federal investigations tend to be longer and more resource-intensive, and federal sentencing operates differently from state systems. There is no parole: a defendant serves at least 85 percent of the imposed sentence. Federal domestic violence charges remain relatively rare compared to state prosecutions, but they produce longer sentences and are harder to plea down. When conduct violates both state and federal law, both governments can prosecute independently, because state and federal courts are considered separate sovereigns and the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar successive prosecutions between them.