Criminal law
Part of the common law series
Criminal elements
Actus reus · Causation · Concurrence
Mens rea · Intention · Recklessness
Criminal negligence · Ignorantia juris...
Strict, Corporate & Vicarious liability
Crimes against people
Assault · Battery · Robbery
Kidnapping · Pimping · Rape · Sexual offences
Manslaughter · Murder
Crimes against property
Criminal damage · Arson
Theft · Burglary · Deception
Crimes against justice
Obstruction of justice · Bribery
Perjury · Malfeasance in office
Inchoate offenses
Attempt
Conspiracy · Accessory
Criminal defenses
Automatism, Intoxication & Mistake
Insanity · Diminished responsibility
Duress · Necessity
Provocation · Self defence
Other areas of the common law
Contract law · Tort law · Property law
Wills and trusts · Evidence
Portals: Law · Criminal justice

In many common law jurisdictions, the crime of battery involves an injury or other contact upon the person of another in a manner likely to cause bodily harm. Image File history File links Scale_of_justice. ... Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of statutory and common law that deals with crime and the legal punishment of criminal offenses. ... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ... Actus reus is the action (or inaction, in the case of criminal negligence and similar crimes which are sometimes called acts of omission) which, in combination with the mens rea (guilty mind), produces criminal liability in common law based criminal law jurisdictions such as the United States, United Kingdom. ... Causation is the bringing about of a result, and in law it is an element in various tests for legal liability. ... For other uses, see concurrency. ... The mens rea is the Latin term for guilty mind used in the criminal law. ... In the criminal law, intention is one of the three general classes of mens rea necessary to constitute a conventional as opposed to strict liability crime. ... In the criminal law, recklessness (sometimes also termed willful blindness which may have a different meaning in the United States) is one of the three possible classes of mental state constituting mens rea (the Latin for guilty mind). To commit an offence of ordinary as opposed to strict liability, the... Criminal negligence, in the realm of criminal common law, is a legal term of art for a state of mind which is careless, inattentive, neglectful, willfully blind, or reckless; it is the mens rea part of a crime which, if occurring simultaneously with the actus reus, gives rise to criminal... Ignorantia juris non excusat or Ignorantia legis neminem excusat (Latin for ignorance of the law does not excuse) is a public policy holding that a person who is unaware of a law may not escape liability for violating that law merely because he or she was unaware of its content... In criminal law, strict liability is liability where mens rea (Latin for guilty mind) does not have to be proved in relation to one or more elements comprising the actus reus (Latin for guilty act) although intention, recklessness or knowledge may be required in relation to other elements of the... In the criminal law, corporate liability determines the extent to which a corporation as a fictitious person can be liable for the acts and omissions of the natural persons it employs. ... The legal principle of vicarious liability applies to hold one person liable for the actions of another when engaged in some form of joint or collective activity. ... In criminal law, an offence against the person usually refers to a crime which is committed by direct physical harm or force being applied to another person. ... Pimping v. ... Sex crimes are forms of human sexual behavior that are crimes. ... Property damage is damage or destruction done to public or private property, caused either by a person who is not its owner or by natural phenomena. ... The Skyline Parkway Motel in Afton, Virginia after an arson fire on July 9, 2004. ... Everyday instance of theft: the bike which fits on this wheel has disappeared. ... In English law, the main deception offences are defined in the Theft Act 1968 (TA68), the Theft Act 1978 and the Theft (Amendment) Act 1996. ... Modern Obstruction of Justice, in a common law state, refers to the crime of offering interference of any sort to the work of police, investigators, regulatory agencies, prosecutors, or other (usually government) officials. ... Bribery is a crime implying a sum or gift given alters the behaviour of the person in ways not consistent with the duties of that person. ... Perjury is the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law or in any of various sworn statements in writing. ... Malfeasance in office, or official misconduct, is the commission of an unlawful act, done in an official capacity, which affects the performance of official duties. ... An inchoate offence is the crime of preparing for or seeking to commit another crime. ... The crime of attempt occurs when a person does an act amounting to more than mere preparation for a criminal offense, with specific intent to commit a crime, if that act tends but fails to effect the commission of the offense intended. ... In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between natural persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement. ... An accessory is a person who assists in or conceals a crime, but does not actually participate in the commission of the crime. ... Automatism is a disassociative state where the individual suffering from it has no control over their actions. ... ... Mistake of law and mistake of fact are two types of defense by excuse, via which a defendant may argue that they should not be held criminally liable for breaking the law or liable for damages under a civil law action. ... In a criminal trial, the insanity defenses are possible defenses by excuse, via which defendants may argue that they should not be held criminally liable for breaking the law, as they were mentally ill at the time of their allegedly criminal actions. ... In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held criminally liable for doing so, as their mental functions were diminished or impaired. ... For English law on the criminal defence, see duress in English law. ... This article is about the law definition of necessity. ... For the country-specific law, see provocation in English law. ... This article and defense of property deal with the legal concept of excused (sometimes termed justified) acts that might otherwise be illegal. ... A contract is any promise or set of promises made by one party to another for the breach of which the law provides a remedy. ... In the common law, a tort is a civil wrong for which the law provides a remedy. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... The law of trusts and estates is generally considered the body of law which governs the management of personal affairs and the disposition of property of an individual in anticipation and the event of such persons incapacity or death, also known as the law of successions in civil law. ... The law of evidence governs the use of testimony (e. ... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Look up Contact in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The classical definition of a person is a human being regarded as an individual. ... The medical idea of (grievous) bodily harm is more specific than legal ideas of assault or violence in general, and distinct from property damage. ...

Battery is often broken down into gradations for the purposes of determining the severity of punishment. For example:

• Simple battery may include any form of non-consensual, harmful or insulting contact, regardless of the injury caused. Criminal battery requires an intent to inflict an injury on another, as distinguished from a tortious battery.
• Sexual battery may be defined as non-consensual touching of the intimate parts of another.
• Family violence battery may be limited in its scope between persons within a certain degree of relationship: statutes with respect to this offense have been enacted in response to increasing awareness of the problem of domestic violence.
• Aggravated battery is generally regarded as a serious offense of felony grade, involving the loss of the victim's limb or some other type of permanent disfigurement of the victim. As successor to the common law crime of mayhem, this is sometimes subsumed in the definition of aggravated assault.

In some jurisdictions, battery has recently been constructed to include directing bodily secretions at another person without their permission. In some jurisdictions this automatically is considered aggravated battery. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... “Domestic disturbance” redirects here. ... Mayhem, under the common law of crimes, consisted of the intentional and wanton removal of a body part that would handicap a persons ability to defend himself in combat. ... Aggravated assault is a form of violent crime. ...

As a first approximation to the distinction between battery and assault:

• the overt behavior of an assault might be A advancing upon B by chasing after him and swinging a fist at his head, while
• that of an act of battery might be A actually striking B.

Within United States law, in most jurisdictions, the charge of criminal battery requires evidence of a mental state (mens rea). This charge, is non-existent in some states though. Actus reus is the action (or inaction, in the case of criminal negligence and similar crimes which are sometimes called acts of omission) which, in combination with the mens rea (guilty mind), produces criminal liability in common law based criminal law jurisdictions such as the United States, United Kingdom. ... The mens rea is the Latin term for guilty mind used in the criminal law. ...

England and Wales

In the law of England and Wales, battery is not graded, although there are separate offences of an assault occasioning actual bodily harm and infliction of grievous bodily harm. Battery consists merely in unlawfully touching another (thus no particular injury is necessary). It is to be distinguished from an assault where the victim is caused to apprehend the immediate commission of a battery. English law also does not recognise any offence of sexual battery, rather having the offence of sexual assault which is the non-consensual touching of another in a sexual manners. 3 Sexual Offences Act 2003. There is no separare offence relating to incidents of domestic violence, except in the case of death where the offence of causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable adult may have been committed (s. 5 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004s. 5 Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004).

Under English law, a battery has only been committed if the correct mens rea can be proven. In the case of battery, the mens rea, or fault element, of the offence is intention or recklessness (see R v. Venna [1976] QB 421). A person acts intentionally in respect of a result if he foresees that the result is a virtually certain consequence of his action and nonetheless acts (see R v. Woollin

See also

• Actual bodily harm
• Battery (tort)
• Grievous bodily harm
• Beating up