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Battery is a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact, distinct from assault, which is the act of creating reasonable fear or apprehension of such contact. Battery is a specific common law offense, although the term is used more generally to refer to any unlawful offensive physical contact with another person.
Assault and battery is the combination of two violent crimes: assault (harm or the threat of harm) and battery (physical violence). This legal distinction exists only in jurisdictions that distinguish assault as threatened violence rather than actual violence.
Battery is aggravated when using a weapon or dangerous object, when it results in disfigurement or serious physical injury. Assault and battery are classified as aggravated when directed towards a person with special status such as a law enforcement officer or elderly person. Assault becomes aggravated given the intention to murder or rape.
Trespass is an area of tort law broadly divided into three groups: trespass to the person (see below), trespass to chattels, and trespass to land.. Trespass to the person historically involved six separate trespasses: threats, assault, battery, wounding, mayhem (or maiming), and false imprisonment. [1]
A battery can occur without a preceding assault, such as if a person is struck in the back of the head. An assault can be an attempted battery. I.e. 'If Henry points a gun at Thomas he has committed an assault. It makes no difference whether the gun is loaded,' [4] But 'Henry will only commit a battery if he shoots the gun and hits Thomas'. [4]
Assault is notably similar to battery. Indeed, the elements of intent and act are identical. The only difference is the result. A person commits an assault when he acts either intending to cause a harmful or offensive contact with another or intending to cause another imminent apprehension of such contact and when such imminent apprehension ...
[9] [10] The result is that in many of these jurisdictions, assault has taken on a definition that is more in line with the traditional definition of battery. The legal systems of civil law and Scots law have never distinguished assault from battery. Legal systems generally acknowledge that assaults can vary greatly in severity. [11]
Assault (tort) – intentionally and voluntarily causing the reasonable apprehension of an immediate harmful or offensive contact. Battery (tort) – Bringing about an unconsentful harmful or offensive contact with a person or to something closely associated with that person (such as an item of clothing). It differs from assault in that it ...