Yes. California makes it a separate crime to secretly watch, photograph, or record a person in a place where they expect privacy, such as a bathroom or changing room, or to secretly image a person's body under their clothing. Penal Code section 647(j) punishes the covert viewing or recording itself, a different act from indecent exposure, which punishes lewdly exposing your own body to others.
How this differs from indecent exposure and lewd conduct
Indecent exposure under Penal Code section 314 punishes a person who "willfully and lewdly" exposes "his person, or the private parts thereof, in any public place, or in any place where there are present other persons to be offended or annoyed thereby." The defendant is the one being seen. Lewd conduct in public under Penal Code section 647(a) punishes a person who "solicits anyone to engage in or who engages in lewd or dissolute conduct in a public place or in a place open to the public or exposed to public view." Both statutes are about the defendant's own conduct, not about watching someone else.
Penal Code section 647(j) is the opposite situation. The defendant is not exposing anything. The defendant is secretly watching, or using a camera or phone, to view or record someone else who has a reasonable expectation of privacy, in a place such as a bathroom, bedroom, or changing room, or under their clothing. The conduct usually happens without the other person's knowledge or consent, often in a private interior, though the branch covering images taken under or through clothing is not limited to a private room. Confusing the two can lead to the wrong charge being assumed, so check the exact subsection cited on your paperwork rather than relying on the general label "peeping" or "indecent exposure."
What the law actually requires
Section 647(j) is written in several branches, and which one applies changes what the prosecution must prove. In general terms, the branches cover looking through a hole or opening, or using an instrument such as a camera or phone, to view the inside of a bedroom, bathroom, changing room, or other area where the occupant has a reasonable expectation of privacy, with intent to invade the privacy of a person inside, and separately, using a concealed camera to secretly image an identifiable person's body or undergarments under or through their clothing, or to image a person who may be undressed in a private interior, again without consent and with intent to invade privacy. Viewing alone, without making any recording, can be enough under the first branch, and under the branch covering secret images of a person who may be undressed, it is not a defense that the person was not actually undressed. A repeat violation, or one involving a minor, carries its own heightened exposure under subdivision (k).
Because the exact facts that matter change with the branch charged, a side by side comparison of the subsections, including the case law interpreting each one, is addressed in a companion answer, California Peeping and Covert-Viewing Charges: Which Subsection? Start with the exact citation on your complaint before assuming which facts apply to your case.
Misdemeanor or felony: the penalty
A first violation of section 647(j) is generally a misdemeanor, carrying up to six months in county jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both, under the general misdemeanor limit in Penal Code section 19. Section 647(k) raises that exposure to up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $2,000, or both, for a second or later violation of subdivision (j), or for a violation in which the person viewed or recorded was a minor. A narrower felony option applies to an adult with a second or later violation of the branch covering secret images of a person who may be undressed, when the person recorded was a minor. These heightened rules do not turn every covert-viewing allegation into a felony, so the actual prior record and the age of the person alleged to be viewed both matter to the real exposure in a given case.
What this charge does not cover
The first three paragraphs of section 647(j) cover the act of watching or recording. Distributing an intimate image afterward is a separate offense under paragraph (4) of the same subdivision, discussed on the firm's page on revenge porn. Making an image alone does not establish the separate act of distributing it. Secretly recording a conversation, rather than watching or imaging someone, instead raises the separate eavesdropping law in Penal Code section 632, covered in Is Secretly Recording Your Partner Legal in California? A single device can generate more than one kind of evidence, so compare each actual count against its own statute rather than assuming one explanation covers everything on the paperwork.
Common defenses
Because most branches of section 647(j) require a specific intent to invade privacy, and the branch covering images taken under or through clothing also requires an intent to arouse or gratify sexual desire, the prosecution's evidence of what you were actually trying to do, not just what a camera captured, is often where a defense is built. Consent, the absence of a reasonable expectation of privacy in the specific location, and, for the image branches, whether the person is identifiable in the statute's sense, meaning someone could recognize them, are common defense issues, and each depends on the exact branch charged and the specific facts of the case.
What to do if you are charged or under investigation
Keep the citation or complaint, and do not copy, forward, or delete any device or file connected to the allegation. Write down the location, the relationship between you and the other person, and anything that shows permission or an open, visible setting rather than a private one. The Law Offices of David S. Chesley can review the exact subsection charged and the available evidence with you.