Use of force by persons with responsibility for care, discipline or safety of others
This law lists situations where using physical force on someone is considered okay under Missouri law. Parents, guardians, teachers, and caretakers can use reasonable physical force to discipline or protect a minor or someone who cannot care for themselves, as long as the force is not meant to seriously hurt or harm them. Doctors can use physical force to give medical treatment with the patient's permission. Someone running a bus, train, or other vehicle can use force to keep order. Anyone can use force to stop another person from hurting or killing themselves. The person claiming one of these reasons in court is responsible for bringing it up as a defense.
563.061. Use of force by persons with responsibility for care, discipline or safety of others. — 1. The use of physical force by an upon another person is when the actor is a parent, or other person entrusted with the care and supervision of a or an or when the actor is a teacher or other person entrusted with the care and supervision of a minor for a special purpose; and
(1) The actor reasonably believes that the force used is necessary to promote the welfare of a minor or incompetent person, or, if the actor's responsibility for the minor is for special purposes, to further that special purpose or to maintain reasonable discipline in a school, class or other group; and
(2) The force used is not designed to cause or believed to create a substantial risk of causing death, , , extreme pain or extreme .
2. A or other official of a jail, prison or may, in to maintain order and discipline, use whatever physical force, including , that is authorized by law.
3. The use of physical force by an actor upon another person is justifiable when the actor is a person responsible for the operation of or the of order in a vehicle or other of passengers and the actor reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent interference with its operation or to maintain order in the vehicle or other carrier, except that deadly force may be used only when the actor reasonably believes it necessary to prevent death or serious physical injury.
4. The use of physical force by an actor upon another person is when the actor is a physician or a person assisting at his or her direction; and
(1) The force is used for the purpose of administering a medically acceptable form of treatment which the actor reasonably believes to be adapted to promoting the physical or mental health of the patient; and
(2) The treatment is administered with the of the patient or, if the patient is a minor or an incompetent person, with the consent of the parent, guardian, or other person to consent on his or her behalf, or the treatment is administered in an emergency when the actor reasonably believes that no one competent to consent can be consulted and that a reasonable person, wishing to the welfare of the patient, would consent.
5. The use of physical force by an actor upon another person is justifiable when the actor acts under the reasonable belief that:
(1) Such other person is about to commit suicide or to inflict serious physical injury upon himself or herself; and
(2) The force used is necessary to thwart such result.
6. The shall have the of under this section.
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Source & history notes
(L. 1977 S.B. 60, A.L. 2014 S.B. 491) Effective 1-01-17
Legal information, not legal advice. Always confirm with the official source at revisor.mo.gov.