About This Site

Ucmj Offenses is an independent reference covering 110 UCMJ offense and related Part IV reference pages, including 18 enumerated Article 134 offenses. It is not affiliated with any law firm or government agency, and it does not offer legal representation.

What the pages cover

Pages include the applicable elements or legal framework, punishment information, related provisions, sources, and historical context where materially relevant. Each article page also has a short section describing what the provision does.

The punishment information has two separate parts: the maximum authorized punishment stated in the Manual for Courts-Martial, and the sentencing parameter classification from Appendix 12C of the Manual. How UCMJ Sentencing Rules Apply explains how they relate and when each applies.

Supporting pages: the Renumbering Guide, the Glossary, Offenses by Sentencing Category, and the Article 134 hub.

What this site does not do

This site does not provide legal advice, evaluate the facts of any case, or predict outcomes or sentences. It does not describe defense strategies. Using it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Sources and method

• Statutes. Current statutory text is checked against the official United States Code prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, in its most recent edition as published on GovInfo, and against public laws enacted after that edition, checked through Public Law 119-108 (September 11, 2026). Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute may be used as a secondary navigation and readability aid.
• Elements, explanations, and maximum punishments. Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 edition), Part IV. Where a later executive order changed Part IV text, the order is cited on the affected page.
• Sentencing parameters. Manual for Courts-Martial (2024 edition), Rules for Courts-Martial 925 and 1002 and Appendices 12, 12B, 12C, and 12D, as added by Executive Order 14103 (2023). Executive Order 14130 (2024) did not amend Appendices 12B, 12C, or 12D, but it did amend Part IV and several Rules for Courts-Martial. Those Part IV amendments are incorporated into the affected offense pages.
• History. Statutory source credits; the Manual’s Appendix 17 (Analysis of Punitive Articles), which identifies where each current offense was located in the 2016 edition of the Manual; and executive orders and proclamations published in the Federal Register.
• Statutory changes after the 2024 Manual. Where Congress amended an article after the 2024 edition was prepared — for example, Article 103b and Article 120b in December 2024 — the page states the change and notes that the Manual’s elements predate it.
• Case law. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces’ Military Justice Case Digest may be used to identify relevant decisions. Propositions attributed to a case are checked against and cited to the court’s opinion where available.
• Links. Where a source is available online from an official publisher, the page links to it: the United States Code on GovInfo, the Manual for Courts-Martial on the Joint Service Committee on Military Justice site, the Federal Register, and the court’s published opinions.

Corrections

The content of this site has been reviewed against primary sources more than once, including after outside review. Corrections include:

1. Punishment presentation. Pages previously mixed the maximum authorized punishment with the sentencing parameter and described the parameter system as applying by the date of the conduct alone. Every page now states the maximum authorized punishment and the sentencing parameter separately, and a central page explains when parameters apply.
2. Which sentencing rules apply. An earlier version tied the parameter system to the dates of all the offenses in a case. The governing rule looks to the offenses of which the accused is convicted: the newer rules apply, subject to the capital-case rules, when the accused is convicted only of offenses committed after 27 December 2023. Every page now says so.
3. Elements and definitions. Every article page was compared line by line with Part IV of the 2024 Manual and the statute. Missing elements were added and several definitions were replaced with the statutory text, including the Article 120 definitions of “sexual act” and “sexual contact.”
4. Executive Order 14130. The Article 128b, Article 130, and Article 134 child pornography pages now reflect the 2024 amendments to Part IV, including dating partners and the revised definitions of child pornography, minor, sexually explicit conduct, and visual depiction.
5. Special courts-martial. The sentencing and glossary pages now distinguish the 12-month parameter at a special court-martial from the lower limits of Article 19(b) for a special court-martial consisting of a military judge alone.
6. Case citations. Every case citation was checked against the court’s opinion. Several decision years were corrected, some descriptions of holdings were revised or narrowed, and one citation without a supporting majority opinion was removed.
7. Article histories. History sections were rewritten from statutory source credits and the Manual’s analysis, correcting earlier statements about when and how several articles were added, renumbered, or amended.
8. Classification errors. An obstructing-justice page had been filed under Article 134 instead of Article 131b; eight standalone articles (77, 79, 87a, 87b, 93a, 95a, 103a, and 103b) were initially missing; and the Offense Category summaries for Articles 82, 83, 84, 85, 89, 90, 95, 108a, 110, and the Article 134 self-injury offense were incomplete or wrong. All were corrected.
9. Renumbering guide. The guide now lists every former Article 134 offense identified in the Manual’s analysis and correctly shows that espionage was Article 106a before it became Article 103a.
10. Purpose statements. Sections that described why an article exists without a source for that purpose now describe what the provision does, and purposes stated in the Manual are attributed to it.

Last updated

17 September 2026.