§ Article 130 : Stalking

Article 130 of the UCMJ (10 U.S.C. § 930) punishes wrongfully engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear death or bodily harm — including sexual assault — to themselves or to their immediate family, intimate partner, or dating partner, where the accused knows or should know the conduct would cause such fear, and the conduct actually induces reasonable fear.

Who It Applies To

Any person subject to the UCMJ who wrongfully engages in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear death or bodily harm, including sexual assault, to themselves or to a member of their immediate family, an intimate partner, or a dating partner; who has knowledge, or should have knowledge, that the conduct would place that person in reasonable fear; and whose conduct induces reasonable fear in that person.

What It Covers

1. The accused wrongfully engaged in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear death or bodily harm, including sexual assault, to that person, a member of that person’s immediate family, that person’s intimate partner, or that person’s dating partner.
2. The accused knew, or should have known, that the specific person would be placed in reasonable fear of death or bodily harm, including sexual assault, to any of them.
3. The accused’s conduct induced reasonable fear of death or bodily harm, including sexual assault, to any of them in the specific person.

The statutory text and elements printed in the 2024 edition of the Manual do not include the December 2023 dating-partner amendment. Executive Order 14130 (2024) then amended Part IV of the Manual to add dating partners to Article 130’s statutory text, elements, definitions, and sample specification.

Statutory definitions

• Conduct — conduct of any kind, including use of surveillance, the mails, an interactive computer service, an electronic communication service, or an electronic communication system.
• Course of conduct — a repeated maintenance of visual or physical proximity to a specific person; a repeated conveyance of verbal, written, or implied threats, or a combination of them, directed at a specific person; or a pattern of conduct composed of repeated acts evidencing a continuity of purpose.
• Repeated — two or more occasions.
• Immediate family, intimate partner, and dating partner are defined in the statute and are also used by Article 128b. Under the Manual, the relative weight given to each statutory factor in deciding whether a person is a dating partner may vary with the facts and circumstances.

Under the Manual, bodily harm means any offensive touching, however slight, including sexual assault. A threat is a communication, by words or conduct, of a present determination or intent to cause bodily harm to the specific person, an immediate family member, or an intimate partner, presently or in the future; actual intent to cause bodily harm is not required.

Maximum Punishment

Maximum authorized punishment. Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 3 years.

Sentencing parameters. Category 2 (1–36 months).

The newer sentencing rules apply, subject to the capital-case rules, when the accused is convicted only of offenses committed after 27 December 2023. See How UCMJ Sentencing Rules Apply. The maximum authorized punishment and the applicable sentencing framework do not predict the sentence in a particular case.

Related and Distinguished

Stalking requires a course of conduct that induces reasonable fear. A single threat is addressed by Article 115. When stalking is directed at a spouse, intimate partner, dating partner, or immediate family member, it is also a “violent offense” for purposes of Article 128b.

What the Provision Does

Article 130 addresses a repeated course of conduct that satisfies the provision’s fear, knowledge, and actual-inducement requirements. The fear may concern the specific person, a member of that person’s immediate family, an intimate partner, or a dating partner.

History

Stalking was added to the UCMJ as Article 120a by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (Pub. L. 109-163, § 551). The Military Justice Act of 2016 (Pub. L. 114-328, §§ 5401, 5443) renumbered it as Article 130 and rewrote it, effective January 1, 2019. In December 2023, Pub. L. 118-31 added dating partners and a statutory definition of the term. Executive Order 14130 (December 20, 2024) amended the Manual’s Article 130 paragraph to add dating partners to its statutory text, elements, and sample specification, and added an explanation of how the dating-partner factors are weighed.

Sources

• 10 U.S.C. § 930 (Article 130, UCMJ)
• Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 2024 edition, Part IV, ¶ 80
• Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Appendix 12B and Appendix 12C
• Executive Order 14130, 2024 Amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 89 Fed. Reg. 105343 (Dec. 27, 2024), Annex, Section 3 (amendments to Part IV, paragraph 80)