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. 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. ...
Offences against the person are usually taken to comprise:
The crimes are usually grouped together in common law countries as a legacy of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861. In criminal law, a common assault is a crime when the defendant either puts another in fear of injury or actually commits a battery. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Actual Bodily Harm (often abbreviated to ABH) is a type of criminal assault defined under English law. ... Grievous bodily harm or GBH is a phrase used in English criminal law which was introduced in ss18 and 20 Offences Against The Person Act 1861. ... 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). ... The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (OAP, 24 & 25 Victoria, Cap. ...
Although most sexual offences will also be offences against the person, [3] for various reasons (including sentencing and registration of offenders) sexual crimes are usually categorised separately. Similarly, although many homicides also involve an offence against the person, they are usually categorised under the more serious category. Homicide (Latin homicidium, homo human being + caedere to cut, kill) refers to the act of killing another human being. ...
Footnotes
^ Often referred to as adminstration of a noxious substance in legal parlance.
^ Some legal systems have two separate crimes: occasioning grievous bodily harm, and intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm.
^ For example, it would be legally impossible to rape another person without also committing a battery against them
An offence contrary to section 20 should be reserved for those wounds considered to be serious (thus equating the offence with the infliction of grievous, or serious, bodily harm under the other part of the section).
The offence is committed when a person does an act that is more than merely preparatory to the commission of an offence of murder, and at the time the person has the intention to kill.
These offences are relevant in circumstances where the injury does not amount to grievous bodily harm or where the acts of the defendant are not sufficiently proximate to the indictable offences to allow a charge of attempting to commit that indictable offence.