Assault

• Author: Jeffrey Wilson
• Pages: 1357-1358

Contenidos

• Background.
• Elements.
• Criminal Assault.
• Civil Assault.
• Additional Resources.

Page 1357

Background

Assault is an intentional attempt or threat to inflict injury upon a person, coupled with an apparent, present ability to cause the harm, which creates a reasonable apprehension of bodily harm or offensive contact in another. Assault does not require actual touching or bodily harm to the victim. Assault and battery are sometimes used interchangeably, but battery is an unjustified harmful or offensive touching of another. Battery also differs from assault in that it does not require the victim to be in apprehension of harm.

Assault developed in common law, meaning it developed through usage, custom, and judicial decisions rather than from legislative enactment. Modern-day assault statutes closely reflect the ancient common-law definition. An assault is both a crime and a tort. Therefore, an assailant may face both criminal and civil liability. A criminal assault conviction may result in a fine, imprisonment, or both. In a civil assault case, the victim may be entitled to monetary damages from the assailant.

Elements

Assault requires:

An act intended to cause an apprehension of harmful or offensive contact.

An at that casues apprehension in the victim that harmful or offensive contact is imminent.

Words, without an act, cannot constitute an assault. For example, no assault has occurred where a person waves his arms at another and shouts, "I'm going to shoot you!" where no gun is visible or apparent. However, if the threatening words are accompanied by some action that indicates the perpetrator has the ability to carry out a threat, an assault has occurred. It is an assault where a person threatens to shoot another while pointing a gun, even where the victim later learns that the gun was not loaded. Moreover, pointing a gun without an accompanying verbal threat is still an assault, assuming the victim saw the gun.

Assault requires intent, meaning that there has been a deliberate, unjustified interference with the personal right or liberty of another in a way that causes harm. In the tort of assault, intent is established if a reasonable person is substantially certain that certain consequences will result; intent is established whether or not he or she actually intends those consequences to result. Pointing a gun at someone's head is substantially certain to result in apprehension for the victim. In criminal law, intent...