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Legal Information: Illinois

Workplace Protections

Updated: 
January 23, 2024

What are the legal definitions of domestic, sexual, and gender violence, as well as a "crime of violence"?

For the purpose of this law, domestic violence is defined as:

  • physical abuse;
  • harassment;
  • intimidation of a dependent;
  • interference with personal liberty; or
  • willful deprivation.1

For the purpose of this law, sexual violence is defined as any act described in any of the following crimes:

For the purpose of this law, gender violence is defined as any of the following:

  • a criminal act that is committed, at least in part, on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived sex or gender;
  • a criminal act that involves a physical intrusion/invasion of a sexual nature under “coercive conditions;” or
  • a threat to commit one of the acts described above, which causes the victim to realistically fear that the act will be committed.3

For the purpose of this law, “crime of violence” is defined as any act described in the following sections of the Illinois Criminal Code:

Note: It doesn’t matter whether the abuser was ever arrested or prosecuted for committing any of the above criminal acts or not.

​1 820 ILCS 180/10(6); 60/103(1)
​2 820 ILCS 180/10(5), (20), (20.5)
3
820 ILCS 180/10(5), (12.5)
4 820 ILCS 180/10(2.5)