Restraining Orders

This section defines domestic abuse for the purposes of getting a domestic abuse protective order from family court. Hawai‘i law defines “domestic abuse” as a family or household member doing one or more of the following things:

• exercising coercive control;
• causing physical harm, bodily injury, or assault;
• threatening you with physical harm, bodily injury, or assault happening in the near future;
• extreme psychological abuse;
• malicious property damage, which means purposely damaging your property to cause you emotional distress; or
• if s/he is an adult, committing any of the following sexual offenses against a child:
  • sexual assault in the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th degrees;
  • continuous sexual assault of a minor under the age of fourteen;
  • indecent exposure;
  • incest;
  • promoting child abuse in the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd degrees;
  • electronic enticement of a child in the 1^st and 2^nd degrees; and
  • indecent electronic display to a child.¹

¹ Haw. Rev. Stat. § 586-1