Assault is a crime or tort of violence against another person. In some jurisdictions, including Australia and New Zealand, assault refers to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, while in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, assault may refer only to the threat of violence caused by an immediate show of force.
Assault is often defined to include not only violence, but any intentional physical contact with another person without their consent In common law jurisdictions, including England and Wales and the United States, battery is the crime that represents the unlawful physical contact, though this distinction does not exist in all jurisdictions. Exceptions exist to cover unsolicited physical contact which amount to normal social behavior known as de minimis harm.
In most jurisdictions, the intention to cause grievous bodily harm (or its equivalent) may amount to the mental requirement to prefer a charge of murder in circumstances where the harm inflicted upon the victim proves fatal.
At common law criminal assault was an attempted battery. The elements of battery are (1) a volitional act (2) done for the purpose of causing an harmful or offensive contact with another person or under circumstances that make such contact substantially certain to occur and (3) which causes such contact.[5] Thus throwing a rock at someone for the purpose of hitting him is a battery if the rock in fact strikes the person and is an assault if the rock misses. The fact that the person may have been unaware that the rock had been thrown at him is irrelevant under this definition of assault. Some jurisdictions have incorporated the definition of civil assault into the definition of the crime making it a criminal assault to intentionally place another person in "fear" of a harmful or offensive contact. "Fear" means merely apprehension - awareness rather than any emotional state.
Aggravated assault
Aggravated assault is, in some jurisdictions, a stronger form of assault, usually using a deadly weapon.[6] A person has committed an aggravated assault when that person:
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attempts to cause serious bodily injury to another person such as in the case of Kidnapping
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attempts to have sexual activity with another person under the age of 14
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attempts or causes bodily injury to another person with a deadly weapon
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