assault

Definition of assault

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈsɔːlt/, SAMPA: /@"sO:lt/
• {{https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/En-us-assault.ogg|Audio (US)

Noun

assault (plural assaults)

1. A violent onset or attack with physical means, as blows, weapons, etc.; an onslaught; the rush or charge of an attacking force; onset; as, to make assault upon a man, a house, or a town.
2. A violent onset or attack with moral weapons, as words, arguments, appeals, and the like; as, to make an assault on the prerogatives of a prince, or on the constitution of a government.
3. (criminal law) An attempt to commit battery: a violent attempt, or willful effort with force or violence, to do hurt to another, but without necessarily touching his person, as by lifting a fist in a threatening manner, or by striking at him and missing him.
4. (singulare tantum) (law) The crime whose action is such an attempt.
5. (tort law) An act that causes someone to fear imminent bodily harm.
6. (singulare tantum) (law) The tort whose action is such an act.
7. (fencing) A non-competitive combat between two fencers.

Derived terms

• assault and battery

Coordinate terms

• battery

Verb

to assault (third-person singular simple present assaults, present participle assaulting, simple past and past participle assaulted)

1. To attack, threaten or harass.

Further reading

Assault is a crime 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 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. 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. Therefore, if you see the rock in flight and realize that you are in danger of being hit then the element of "fear" has been met even if the prospect of being hit by a rock does not frighten you.