Notable Differences Between Assault And Battery.
Notable Differences Between Assault and Battery: Assault and battery are criminal charges that are closely linked with threat and physical harm that can be put against a guilty person. These charges are sometimes leveled together against a person and sometimes separately.
The most important difference between assault and battery is the amount of contact involved in the process. Assault is the charge which is against a threat of violence while battery is the charge against physical violence.
Assault and Battery
Under some authorities, both crimes are often paired together as one offense. The reason for this is because when someone commits battery they usually have the intention to harm, and threaten the person before committing the physical act.
There are also different degrees of assault including first degree, second degree, and third degree. Each degree explains how serious the crime may be.
However, in other jurisdictions, assault is described in broader terms as any intentional physical contact with an individual without their consent. In these states, the meaning of assault surrounds the definition of battery of other jurisdictions.
But like the states that have different definitions for assault and battery, these jurisdictions commonly have three degrees of assault. These degrees of assault determine the range of punishment to be given for the crime.
What Is Assault?
Assault can be defined differently in different states. But generally, it is described as the intent to harm others physically or to give an intentional threat to someone in order to create a sense of fear. Assault is also described sometimes as an attempt to create a battery.
Contact is not necessarily needed to do assault, but still, there is a need for a criminal act in order to convict a person. It is an act of offence which creates a threat in a person and makes a person unsure about his security.
Assault is not a crime if a person gives a threat to the person only by speaking words from his mouth.
Degrees of Assault
- Third Degree Assault: The slightest serious of assault charges, an attempt is made to injure another person. This also includes emotional or mental injury.
- Second Degree Assault: The intention behind the bodily harm, or the level of it, is more severe than Third Degree Assault but not like First Degree Assault. The frequent use of a dangerous weapon is involved.
- First Degree Assault (or Aggravated): This commonly includes severe bodily harm and great indifference for the value of human life. It typically includes the use of a dangerous weapon.
What is Battery?
Battery is a crime when the person touches another person and harms the body of another person intentionally without having the consent of that person. Touching another person by having the wrong intention and harming the body of another person are treated as battery. If a person touches another person physically with an intention to cause bodily harm, it is called a battery.
On the contrary, if a person touches another person by accident, then such an act is not called battery and there is no punishment for such acts.
The acts qualified as battery and often punishable are kicking or punching someone, harming others with the use of deadly weapons.
Types of Battery Charges
- Simple battery: This includes any form of non-combined harmful or insulting contact, regardless of the injury caused.
- Sexual battery: This is defined as non-combined touching of the intimate parts of another. While in Florida, it is seen as anal, oral, or vaginal penetration by, or union with, the sexual organ of another or the anal or vaginal penetration of another by any other object.
- Family-violence battery: This may be restricted in its scope between persons within a specific degree of relationship. Statutes for this offense have been passed in response to increasing awareness of the problem of domestic violence.
- Aggravated battery: This is generally seen as a serious offense of felony grade. The charges may occur when a battery causes serious bodily injury or permanent disfigurement.