You’ve heard it before. You should know better. In Georgia it is not a relic of childhood. Certain actions, when one knew or should have known of the consequences, constitute a crime.
Georgia code § 16-5-60 covers reckless conduct, which is causing harm to or endangering the bodily safety of another and is punishable as a misdemeanor. For a charge of reckless conduct the court will ask “whether a person who caused bodily harm to or endangered the bodily safety of another person by consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk that his act or omission would cause harm or endanger the safety of the other person and the disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care which a reasonable person would exercise in the situation.”
Summed up this means, “Did you know of the possible harm and do it anyway, when it was clear to a reasonable person that someone would or could get hurt?” Or to give a real-life example that many people are capable of, leaving a child unattended in a car. Everyone knows it is potentially dangerous, even fatal. Yet caregivers, thinking it is different for their situation, harmless, or that they will actually be “right back” often gamble and leave children in the car, not knowing that doing so could lead to a misdemeanor.
