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CHAPTER ELEVEN
ASSAULT, BATTERY, AND OTHER CRIMES AGAINST THE
PERSON
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, students will be able to:
2. Know what kind of nonconsensual touching constitutes an assault or a battery.
4. List the various laws designed to protect children from assaults and other similar crimes.
6. Identify the “movement” requirement for a kidnapping conviction.
7. State how the crime of hostage taking differs from kidnapping.
Lesson Plan
Correlated to PowerPoints
I. The Crime of Assault – Assignment 2, 3, 4, 5
Learning Objective 1: Identify the different elements that must be proved for conviction of an
assault or a battery.
Learning Objective 2: Know what kind of nonconsensual touching constitutes an assault or a
battery.
Learning Objective 3: Describe circumstances that warrant a charge of aggravated assault or
battery.
Class Discussion/Activity
Students should review their state’s assault and battery statutes. Have the
two crimes been combined into one offense? If not, how are the crimes of
assault and battery distinguished? Does their assault or battery crime law
require the aggressor have the “present ability” to commit harm? Do their
statutes have special provisions that address assaults or batteries performed
against certain categories of persons, such as an assault on a public
servant, a security officer, or an elderly person?
A. Under common law, assault and battery were two separate crimes.
B. Today, the phrase assault and battery is sometimes used to indicate one offense.
C. A battery cannot be committed without assaulting a victim, but an assault can
occur without a battery.
D. Most states have codified the common law crime of assault.
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1. Included in the crime of assault today are (1) an attempt to commit a
3. In many states, the crime of assault also includes batteries
5. Perhaps most states, and the Model Penal Code § 211.1, have adopted the
6. Under the present federal criminal code, the crime of assault is directed
toward certain situations over which the federal government has
jurisdiction, such as assaults on a federal officer or assaults on a federal
reservation
Class Discussion/Activity
How does your state penal code separate “simple” assault from
“aggravated” assault? How are the two crimes punished?
E. Assault with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon
“What If” Scenario
What if a man you have never met punches you in the face, breaking your nose and knocking
out several teeth? What crime has been committed? Is there any reason for enhancement of
his sentence? What reason(s)?
F. A simple assault is a misdemeanor or ordinance charge.
G. The criminal charge of assault with a deadly or dangerous weapon is a felony
charge.
1. The relative size and strength of the assailant as compared with the victim,
2. Some things, such as guns or large knives, are treated as “inherently”
deadly weapons. The “dangerousness” of other things depends on their use
3. Some states have created a separate crime of committing a felony while
armed with a dangerous weapon, whereas other states enhance penalties of
people who commit a felony while armed. What constitutes “armed” is
most often a question of law
II. Battery – Assignment 2, 3, 4, 5
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Learning Objective 1: Identify the different elements that must be proved for conviction of an
assault or a battery.
Learning Objective 2: Know what kind of nonconsensual touching constitutes an assault or a
battery.
Learning Objective 3: Describe circumstances that warrant a charge of aggravated assault or
battery.
Learning Objective 5: List some of the defenses available to a charge of assault or battery.
A. Battery is a crime that, like murder and manslaughter, is defined in terms of the
conduct of the offender and in terms of the harm done
B. Most state battery statutes define battery to include either physical conduct or
actual bodily injury
2. All states that make battery a crime require that the act to commit a battery
must be intentional (or must be done knowingly), because an accidental
physical contact or injury is not a battery
C. Offensive Touching Under Sexual Assault and Sexual Battery Statutes
1. Many states have enacted sexual assault statutes to replace or add to their
old rape statutes.
a. These statutes generally provide three or four degrees of sexual
assault. In addition to defining sexual intercourse broadly, these
statutes also forbid and punish offensive touching
Media Tool
Factsheet: The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/vawa_factsheet.pdf
o White House factsheet about how the VAWA has improved
criminal justice responses to violence against women.
o Discussion: Do you agree with the information provided on the
factsheet? Are there any inaccuracies? Is there any information
not provided that you would like to see? How do you think you
might be able to attain this information?
D. Sports Injuries When Force Exceeds the Rules of the Game – Assignment 2, 5
Class Discussion/Activity
Ask students what situations occur in amateur or professional sports when
an athlete was charged with a crime, or arguably should have been
charged, for physical conduct beyond the rules of the game? What about
spectator violence at sporting events?
1. If the conduct is beyond the rules of the game, is it a battery or an assault?
a. The Washington Court of Appeals held that an assault was committed
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2. Spectator violence, and sometimes parental rage, are occasionally a problem at
sporting events
Media Tool
Sports violence as criminal assault
http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2969&context=dlj
o Duke University article regarding the development of the sports
violence as criminal assault in Canadian courts.
o Discussion: Is the doctrine related to sports violence as criminal
assault in Canada similar to the United States? Has it developed
similarly?
E. Other Physical Contact without Consent
“What If” Scenario
What if a strange man roughly grabs a woman in a public place and kisses her in the presence of
her husband?
1. Pushing, pinching, biting, scratching, touching, kissing, punching, spitting,
and tackling are all forms of physical contact in which the person initiating the
contact could be acting in a friendly, joking, or loving manner, or the contact
could be hostile, angry, or belligerent
2. Defenses to such charges include:
3. Some states also have the crime of menacing
III. Felonious and Aggravated Assaults and Batteries – Assignment 4
Learning Objective 2: Know what kind of nonconsensual touching constitutes an assault or a
battery.
Learning Objective 3: Describe circumstances that warrant a charge of aggravated assault or
battery.
Media Tool
Mandatory prison sentence statistics
http://www.statisticbrain.com/mandatory-prison-sentence-statistics/
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o Statistics Brain table listing mandatory prison sentences in the
United States.
o Discussion: How do the mandatory prison sentences in your state
compare with those listed in the table on the website? Are these
sentences too harsh? Too lenient?
A. All states have enacted “aggravated assault” or “aggravated battery” statutes,
which increase an assault or battery from a misdemeanor to a felony
1. In the case of assaults, the aggravating factors usually are (1) use of a
B. Aggravated assault/battery cases often are complicated by an assertion of self-
defense
2. A person is not entitled to use force for self-defense if he is engaged in a
crime when confronted by force
C. Mayhem and Malicious Disfigurement
1. Mayhem and malicious disfigurement is defined as willfully inflicting an
injury on another, so as to cripple or mutilate the person.
a. States also follow the common law definition of mayhem, which is
the unlawful and violent depriving of the victim of full use of any
functional member of the body that would make the victim less able to
defend himself or herself
D. Hate Crime Laws
Media Tool
Victor Diego
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/03/victor-diego-transgender-hate-
crime-_n_3378670.html
o Brief article talking about the assault of a gay/transgendered man
in Hollywood.
o Discussion: Do you agree that offenders should be punished more
severely for committing crimes based on a person’s demographic
characteristics, such as the person who was victimized in the
story? If you were a public defender charged with defending the
person who committed this crime, what would you use as a
defense?
1. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that states may not silence
“speech on the basis of its contents, however, states may enact hate crime laws
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2. Proving that the defendant actually “hated” the victim is not generally an
3. If a defendant selects a victim based on a prejudice against the perceived
race of the victim, it is not necessary that the victim in fact be a member of that
race
Class Discussion/Activity
Does your state have a hate crime statute? In many states the hate crime
statute is actually found in the section of the law that outlines criminal
procedure, because a finding that a crime was committed because of bias
or prejudice increases the punishment for the underlying crime. The
offender is convicted of the crime of assault, but his or her punishment is
increased if there’s a finding the crime was a hate crime. What has the
U.S. Supreme Court decided about such crimes?
IV. Child Abuse and Neglect – Assignment 1
Learning Objective 4: List the various laws designed to protect children from assaults and other
similar crimes.
“What If” Scenario
What if you are an elementary school teacher and you suspect a child in your class is being
neglected?
A. Serious problems throughout the United States
B. People who inflict injuries on children may be charged with assault, battery,
assault with a dangerous weapon, aggravated battery, and other offenses in the
criminal code of the state in which the offense occurred
C. Child neglect is the failure to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, sanitation,
medical care, or supervision for a child
D. The child abuse that often appears in courts is physical abuse, such as deliberate
injuries inflicted on children
E. Child abuse as a crime has both an active and a passive element
F. In response to the national problem of child abuse, the following have occurred:
1. Mandatory reporting laws
3. New criminal laws
Class Discussion/Activity
How does the law which protects children in your state work with the law
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that addresses juvenile crime in your state? Do students believe that in
some cases children find themselves in the juvenile court system because
of abuse issues in their home? Discuss the difficulty of this, particularly
with juvenile runaways.
V. Offenses Against the Liberty of a Person: Kidnapping
Learning Objective 4: List the various laws designed to protect children from assaults and other
similar crimes.
Learning Objective 6: Identify the “movement” requirement for a kidnapping conviction.
Learning Objective 7: State how the crime of hostage taking differs from kidnapping.
A. Kidnapping and Hostage Taking
1. Kidnapping is false imprisonment coupled with movement of the victim
2. When other evidence showing that intent to move is present, the statute’s
3. The concept of “moving” the victim under the kidnapping statute applied
4. The general rule seems to be that movement as a result of the commission
of a robbery or rape is not kidnapping
5. In 2006 the California Supreme Court attempted to eliminate some of the
uncertainty surrounding the amount or kind of movement necessary to
support a kidnapping conviction in other contexts
B. Because kidnapping usually requires a forcible movement of the victim “some
distance” or a “substantial distance,” some states have created the crime of
“taking hostage” to eliminate those requirements
C. False Imprisonment
“What If” Scenario
What if a man grabs a woman and pulls her out of her car and to the side of the road behind
some bushes and rapes her? What charges might a prosecutor bring? What must be proved for
a conviction on those charges?
D. Many states have enacted statutes making false imprisonment a crime. The usual
elements are as follows:
1. The defendant must have confined or restrained the liberty or freedom of
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3. The defendant had no lawful authority to confine or restrain the movement
of the victim
5. Many false imprisonment actions today are civil actions alleging false
arrest or the improper detention of a person
E. Parental Kidnapping or Child Snatching.
1. Child snatching is the abduction of a child by one parent without the
consent of the other parent.
3. Motives for child snatching include:
a. Retaliation against and harassment of the other spouse
4. Children who are kidnapped may experience emotional damage as a result
of:
5. Most states are generally prepared to extradite the offending parent back
to the state in which the offense was committed
a. Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act
F. The National Child Search Assistance Act
1. The National Child Assistance Act of 1990 requires all federal, state, and
2. The FBI can enter parental kidnapping cases through the Fugitive Felon
Act if the following conditions exist:
a. A state arrest warrant has been issued charging the parent with a
felony violation
b. Law enforcement officers have evidence of interstate flight
VI. Family Violence and Disturbances – Assignment 1
Learning Objective 4: List the various laws designed to protect children from assaults and other
similar crimes.
A. A study conducted for the National Institute of Mental Health concluded that
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1. Family units include not only the traditional family relationships, but also
unwed homosexual and heterosexual couples
3. Past experience has demonstrated that family trouble calls can be
dangerous for law enforcement officers
5. Because of the battered woman problem, crisis counseling centers and
shelters have been established throughout the United States to assist
victims and their families
B. Domestic violence and women
1. Physical abuse of women, usually by husbands, ex-husbands, or
2. FBI studies show that refusals by the battered spouse to cooperate with
prosecutors rarely lead to better relations with the abusive spouse
3. In 1994, Congress passed the Interstate Domestic Violence Act, as part of
the Violence Against Women Act
a. Created new federal domestic violence crimes and provided
millions of dollars for battered woman shelters and child care
“What If” Scenario
What if a man walks down Vine Street in Hollywood, California, randomly hitting people, and a
70-year-old woman is seriously injured after he hits her? What would the man be convicted of?
C. Abuse of the elderly
1. Under the assault statutes in many states, felony elder abuse is treated as a
separate offense
2. Because elder abuse frequently involves abuse by caregivers charged with
caring for an elderly person, many states have enacted laws aimed at elder
abuse committed by caregivers
XVI. Violence in the Workplace
A. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that each year 1 million people become
victims of violent crimes while at work
1. Most assailants are not coworkers of the person killed
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XVII. Road Rage: Violent Aggressive Driving
A. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported to the U.S. Congress
that “violent aggressive driving” had increased 7 percent a year during the late 1990s
B. Driving violations lead to accidents, which often can help trigger road rage
Lecture Notes
Police and prosecutors deal with many more cases involving assault and battery than they do of
homicide. Students need to be introduced to the differences between the actus reus of simple and
aggravated assault and battery. They also need to research their state’s laws to see if battery has
been made a part of the assault statute. Once they understand these issues, they can look at the
special provisions some states have for crimes like menacing or jostling.
Although false imprisonment and kidnapping don’t always lead to physical injury, they’re
discussed in this chapter because they are “assaults” on a victim’s liberty to move around
Child abuse can be both a crime of commission and omission. It can involve physical assault or
neglect. Instead of treating child abuse under the general assault laws, states have enacted special
legislation that deals with it, along with laws that allow parents to use some force for disciplinary
purposes within legal limits. How do state laws define those limits? What language do they use
and how ambiguous is it? Mandatory reporting laws are part of child abuse statutes. Many
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Key Terms
assault – In many instances, an assault is an attempt to commit a battery, but many states also
make other conduct an assault. Could be combined with a charge of battery to constitute the
crimes of “assault and battery.” (p. 302)
battery – A successful assault, in which the victim is actually and intentionally (or knowingly)
struck by the defendant. (p. 302)
aggravated assault – Assault made more serious by presence of a firearm or as part of intent to
commit a felony. (p. 308)
aggravated battery – A battery that causes serious bodily injury or is committed with a deadly
weapon. (p. 308)
mayhem and malicious disfigurement – Willfully inflicting an injury on another, so as to
cripple or mutilate the person. (p. 310)
kidnapping – False imprisonment coupled with movement of the victim. (p. 318)
Assignments
1. States have all enacted special criminal provisions to protect children. Have students
research those statutes for several different states. In what ways are these statutes similar
2. Have students research the provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
through the U.S. Department of Justice homepage and find what resources are available
for victims of violence. Have students determine how many of those resources are
3. Explain what is involved in the offense of child abuse and discuss the laws that seek to
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4. What elements must a prosecutor prove for a conviction of assault or battery? Have
5. Divide your students into groups. Have one group research their state statue on assault
and the other on domestic violence. Many states will have several degrees of assault and
domestic violence. Have each group prepare a PowerPoint presentation on their topic.
Each group should thoroughly discuss the different degrees of assault or domestic
Case Analysis and Writing Exercises
1. At the beginning of this chapter, we examined the case of United States v. Toviave, where
the court reversed a conviction under the federal forced labor statute. That same court
decided United States v. Callahan, 801 F.3d 606 (6th Cir. 2015), another prosecution under
the federal forced labor statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1589. Both cases involved defendants who
forced other persons to work in the defendants’ homes. Why were the convictions affirmed
in Callahan? How was that case different from Toviave? What gives Congress the power to
enact the forced labor statute?
2. Many states have recently passed legislation making “texting” while driving a minor
misdemeanor. See e.g. Ohio R.S. § 4511.204, effective March of 2015. If an accident occurs
while a defendant is texting and driving, can the defendant be convicted of assault under a
state’s general assault statute? The New Hampshire second degree assault statute, § 631.2,
3. “Road rage” by itself is not a crime. It can, of course, lead to violence that would be a crime.
1. Driving beside Driver 1’s car, Driver 2 pulls up next to Driver 1 and (according to
passengers in Driver 1’s car) waves a gun in the air. Driver 1 stops at the next stop light,
exits his car, and pulls out a handgun which he holds by his side while standing next to
Driver 2. When the light changed, Driver 1 returned to his car and drove away, followed by
Driver 2, who called 911. Driver 1 was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon. Should he be convicted? Did he “assault” Driver 2, as you now understand that
term? If so, what are his defenses? See State v. Almeida, 356 P.3d 822 (Az. App. 2015)
4. It is common for state statutes involving crimes committed while using a “deadly weapon”
or a “dangerous weapon” to specify certain kinds of weapons (pistol, rifle, long knife, and
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People v. Ackah-Essien, 874 N.W.2d 172 (Mich. App. 2015)? Is that the right answer?