Definitions 1.07

Question 1

Act

Answer 1

means a bodily movement, whether voluntary or involuntary, and includes speech.

Question 2

Actor

Answer 2

means a person whose criminal responsibility is in issue in a criminal action.  Whenever the term “suspect” is used in this code, it means “actor.”

Question 3

Agency

Answer 3

includes authority, board, bureau, commission, committee, council, department, district, division, and office.

Question 4

Another

Answer 4

means a person other than the actor.

Question 5

Association

Answer 5

means a government or governmental subdivision or agency, trust, partnership, or two or more persons having a joint or common economic interest.

Question 6

Benefit

Answer 6

means anything reasonably regarded as economic gain or advantage, including benefit to any other person in whose welfare the beneficiary is interested.

Question 7

Bodily Injury

Answer 7

means physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition.

Question 8

Civil Commitment Facility

Answer 8

means a facility owned, leased, or operated by the state, or by a vendor under contract with the state, that houses only persons who have been civilly committed as sexually violent predators under Chapter 841, Health and Safety Code.

Question 9

Coercion

Answer 9

means a threat, however communicated:

(A) to commit an offense;

(B) to inflict bodily injury in the future on the person threatened or another;

(C) to accuse a person of any offense;

(D) to expose a person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule;

(E) to harm the credit or business repute of any person;  or

(F) to take or withhold action as a public servant, or to cause a public servant to take or withhold action.

Question 10

Conduct

Answer 10

means an act or omission and its accompanying mental state.

Question 11

Consent

Answer 11

means assent in fact, whether express or apparent.

Question 12

Correctional

Answer 12

means a place designated by law for the confinement of a person arrested for, charged with, or convicted of a criminal offense.  The term includes:

(A) a municipal or county jail;

(B) a confinement facility operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice;

(C) a confinement facility operated under contract with any division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice;  and

(D) a community corrections facility operated by a community supervision and corrections department.

Question 13

Criminal Negligence

Answer 13

is defined in Section 6.03 (Culpable Mental States).

(a) A person acts intentionally, or with intent, with respect to the nature of his conduct or to a result of his conduct when it is his conscious objective or desire to engage in the conduct or cause the result.

(b) A person acts knowingly, or with knowledge, with respect to the nature of his conduct or to circumstances surrounding his conduct when he is aware of the nature of his conduct or that the circumstances exist. A person acts knowingly, or with knowledge, with respect to a result of his conduct when he is aware that his conduct is reasonably certain to cause the result.

(c) A person acts recklessly, or is reckless, with respect to circumstances surrounding his conduct or the result of his conduct when he is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that its disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the actor’s standpoint.

(d) A person acts with criminal negligence, or is criminally negligent, with respect to circumstances surrounding his conduct or the result of his conduct when he ought to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from the actor’s standpoint.

Question 14

Deadly Weapon

Answer 14

means:

(A) a firearm or anything manifestly designed, made, or adapted for the purpose of inflicting death or serious bodily injury;  or

(B) anything that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury.

Question 15

Effective Consent

Answer 15

includes consent by a person legally authorized to act for the owner.  Consent is not effective if:

(A) induced by force, threat, or fraud;

(B) given by a person the actor knows is not legally authorized to act for the owner;

(C) given by a person who by reason of youth, mental disease or defect, or intoxication is known by the actor to be unable to make reasonable decisions;  or

(D) given solely to detect the commission of an offense.

Question 16

Felony

Answer 16

means an offense so designated by law or punishable by death or confinement in a penitentiary.

Question 17

Harm

Answer 17

means anything reasonably regarded as loss, disadvantage, or injury, including harm to another person in whose welfare the person affected is interested.

Question 18

Individual

Answer 18

means a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.

Question 19

Law

Answer 19

means the constitution or a statute of this state or of the United States, a written opinion of a court of record, a municipal ordinance, an order of a county commissioners court, or a rule authorized by and lawfully adopted under a statute.

Question 20

Misdemeanor

Answer 20

means an offense so designated by law or punishable by fine, by confinement in jail, or by both fine and confinement in jail.

Question 21

Reasonable Belief

Answer 21

means a belief that would be held by an ordinary and prudent man in the same circumstances as the actor.

Question 22

Secure correctional facility

Answer 22

means:

(A) a municipal or county jail;  or

(B) a confinement facility operated by or under a contract with any division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Question 23

Serious Bodily Injury

Answer 23

means bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes death, serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.

Question 24

Sight Order

Answer 24

means a written or electronic instruction to pay money that is authorized by the person giving the instruction and that is payable on demand or at a definite time by the person being instructed to pay.  The term includes a check, an electronic debit, or an automatic bank draft.