Assault and Battery

Criminal Law: Crimes Against the Person: Assault and Battery

Introduction to Assault and Battery

Assault and battery are actually two separate common law crimes, although the words are often used interchangeably and run together as a single expression. They differ from murder and manslaughter primarily in that the victim is not killed. Statutes commonly prescribe greater punishment for so-called aggravated assaults and batteries than for simple assaults and batteries. Thus, assault and battery with a deadly weapon or with intent to commit some other crime, such as rape, are commonly punishable as felonies, while simple assault and battery are considered misdemeanors.

An assault is defined as an unlawful attempt to inflict bodily injury upon another, or the threat to do so coupled with the ability to immediately carry out the threat. An assault can be committed even though the offender does not actually touch, strike, or do bodily harm to another person. In some jurisdictions, it is an assault for one person to give another person reason to fear or expect immediate bodily harm-for example, if a woman threatens a man with a gun that she knows but he does not know is unloaded.

If an assault results in physical contact, a battery has occurred. Battery occurs when a person unlawfully applies force to another human being. Any objectionable touching, even if it does not involve physical pain, may constitute battery. The force may be caused by a fist, weapon, stick, rock, or some other instrument.

The common law crime of mayhem-a term derived from the word maim-is an aggravated battery. In its original definition, mayhem occurred when a person intentionally and maliciously deprived the victim of a part of the body-such as an arm, hand, finger, leg, foot, or eye-without which the victim was less able to fight in the service of the king. Today the statutory crime of mayhem generally covers serious and permanent disfiguring injuries-such as slitting the lips, ears, tongue, or nose-as well as disabling injuries. Some statutes require a specific intent to cause the injury suffered by the victim.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about Assault and Battery in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Assault and Battery

In this Section

Crimes Against the Person (including Murder, Manslaughter, Voluntary Manslaughter, Involuntary Manslaughter, Assault and Battery, Forcible and Statutory Rape and Kidnapping)

Kinds of Torts: Intentional Torts Assault and Battery

Introduction to Assault and Battery

A person commits assault when he or she causes another to fear harmful or offensive bodily contact. In a battery a person actually causes harmful or offensive bodily contact to another. If a person makes a fist and says to a bystander, ‘I am going to smash your face,’ and the bystander fears that the person will hit him or her, an assault has been committed. If the person actually hits the bystander, the person commits battery. If the bystander does not anticipate the blow, the person commits a battery but not an assault.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about Assault and Battery in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Assault and Battery