Definition
An assault is an intentional act that places another person in reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact. No physical contact is required. The essence of assault is the threatened or attempted application of force — the apprehension of harm, not the harm itself.
Two distinct legal frameworks coexist and frequently cause confusion:
1. Criminal assault (traditional common law): An unlawful attempt or offer, with force or violence, to inflict bodily harm on another person. Contact is not required; the attempt or credible threat suffices. Under this definition, assault and battery are separate offenses — assault is the threat or attempt, battery is the completed contact.
2. Criminal assault (modern statutory majority): Many contemporary penal codes have merged or expanded assault to encompass both the threat and the completed act of harmful contact. In these jurisdictions, "assault" may functionally include what the common law called battery.
3. Civil assault (tort): An intentional act by the defendant that causes the plaintiff reasonable apprehension of immediate harmful or offensive contact. The plaintiff need not be touched; the apprehension itself is the injury. This is one of the original intentional torts.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A violent onset or attack with physical means — blows, weapons, and the like. Also used figuratively for a verbal attack with insults or criticism.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A violent onset or attack with physical means such as blows or weapons; an onslaught or rush of an attacking force. Also extended metaphorically to attacks with moral weapons such as words or argument.
Editorial note: Ordinary language treats assault as synonymous with physical attack — the striking, the blow, the violence itself. Legal usage is precisely the opposite in its traditional form: assault is the attempt or threat that precedes any contact. A person who throws a punch and connects has, at common law, committed a battery; if they swing and miss, that is the assault. Researchers relying on lay intuition about this term will systematically misread historical legal sources.
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Common Confusion
ASSAULT vs. BATTERY: At common law these are distinct. Assault = the attempt or threat; battery = the completed, unconsented contact. Modern statutes in many jurisdictions collapse this distinction, using "assault" to cover both. Historical sources always distinguish them; many modern sources do not. A researcher must determine which framework the source is operating under before drawing conclusions.
ASSAULT vs. ASSAULT AND BATTERY: The phrase "assault and battery" in older pleading and many historical sources is a compound charge acknowledging both the threat and the contact. It does not mean a single offense more severe than assault alone — it means both offenses were charged together. Seeing this phrase in a historical record does not indicate a jurisdictional merger of the two torts or crimes.
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Core Elements
For civil assault (tort), the traditionally required elements are:
1. An act by the defendant (words alone are generally insufficient at common law, though some modern courts have relaxed this)
2. Intent to cause apprehension of harmful or offensive contact, or intent to commit a battery
3. Reasonable apprehension in the plaintiff of imminent contact
4. The threatened contact would be harmful or offensive
The imminence requirement is critical: threats of future harm, however menacing, do not satisfy the common law definition of assault. The threatened contact must be impending, not merely possible.
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Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Simple assault: An assault without aggravating circumstances. The baseline offense.
Aggravated assault: An assault committed with intent to commit an additional serious crime (such as rape or robbery), with use of a deadly weapon, against a protected class of victim (law enforcement officer, child), or causing serious bodily injury. Statutory definitions of aggravating factors vary considerably by jurisdiction.
Sexual assault: A statutory category in most modern jurisdictions covering a range of non-consensual sexual acts. This term largely replaced the older term "rape" in modern penal codes and is broader in scope. See the Encyclopedia entry for full treatment.
Assault with a deadly weapon: A distinct statutory offense in most jurisdictions, treated separately from general aggravated assault in many penal codes. The definition of "deadly weapon" is itself a significant research area.
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Why It Matters in Research
The assault/battery distinction is the single most important navigational fact for working with this term across time. Pre-20th century sources — cases, treatises, pleading forms, and the historical dictionaries on this shelf — treat assault and battery as categorically separate. Modern statutory sources often do not. A 19th-century indictment that charges only assault (not "assault and battery") is affirmatively indicating that no contact occurred. A modern charge of "assault" may or may not carry the same implication.
Researchers working in tort history should note that civil assault doctrine developed alongside, but not identically to, criminal assault doctrine. The civil imminence requirement and the role of reasonable apprehension have their own doctrinal trajectory.
The aggravated assault category is a significant trap in historical research. The historical dictionaries on this shelf define aggravated assault narrowly — an assault committed with intent to commit some additional crime. Modern statutes have multiplied the aggravating factors substantially, including deadly weapon use, victim identity, and injury severity. Importing the modern statutory scope back onto historical sources will produce errors.
Sexual assault as a term is almost entirely a post-1970s statutory construction. Historical sources will not use it; they will use rape, carnal knowledge, or related terms. Cross-referencing the Encyclopedia entry on Sexual Assault and Rape is essential for anyone working in this area across time periods.
Jurisdictional variation in the merger or non-merger of assault and battery is a persistent research hazard. Never assume a source's jurisdiction has merged or separated the offenses without verifying the applicable statute or the court's own framing.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries on this shelf are in strong agreement on the core common law definition. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's converge on the same formulation: an unlawful attempt or offer, with force or violence, to inflict bodily hurt upon another, without the blow landing. The canonical illustration — lifting a cane or fist in a threatening manner, or striking at someone and missing — appears in Blackstone and is repeated across sources.
Burrill adds useful precision by emphasizing the intentional character of the act, citing Wharton's American Criminal Law for the formulation "an intentional attempt, by violence, to do a corporal injury to another." This intent element is worth noting: accidental menacing gestures do not constitute assault under the traditional definition.
Rapalje & Lawrence offers the clearest statement of the assault/battery distinction, specifying that if a blow is struck, the act becomes battery, but that in proceedings for battery, assault is necessarily included — a point with procedural significance for historical pleading research.
Bouvier's treatment of aggravated versus simple assault is the most developed among the shelf sources, defining aggravated assault as one committed with intent to commit some additional crime, and simple assault as one committed without such additional intent. This is narrower than most modern statutory definitions of aggravated assault and should not be used as a proxy for modern law.
None of the historical dictionaries address sexual assault as a category — this is consistent with the term's modern statutory origins and confirms that historical sources are simply not useful for researching that concept directly.
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Jurisdictional Note
The majority of U.S. jurisdictions have by statute merged or substantially blurred the common law distinction between assault and battery, with "assault" now often covering both threat and completed contact. A smaller number of jurisdictions, and most common law countries outside the United States, retain the traditional separation. English law is a notable example of retention. Researchers should not assume merger or separation without checking the applicable jurisdiction's current code.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia — Assault: Simple and Aggravated (criminal_37)
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia — Assault with a Deadly Weapon (criminal_39)
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia — Sexual Assault and Rape (Elements and Degrees) (criminal_44)
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