Assault. In English law, a person is guilty of an assault if he attempts unlawfully to apply any force, however slight, to the person of another, or if he uses any gesture indicating an intention to commit an assault. If any force, however slight, is actually applied to the person or dress of another, the act amounts to battery. If a person violently deprived another of a member proper for his defence, such as a leg, an arm, a finger, an eye, or a fore-tooth, the ancient law held him guilty of mayhem or maiming; but this term is now obsolete. Violence is not necessary to constitute an assault; for the law, says Blackstone, cannot draw the line between different degrees of violence, and therefore prohibits the first and lowest stage of it, every man's person being sacred. Mere words can never constitute an assault.
Assault is a civil wrong, giving rise to an action for damages; and, as a general rule, the court will not interfere with the discretion of the jury in assessing the damages. It is sufficient to prove any act from which the unlawful intention may be implied. Thus, throwing water on a man, or riding after him and compelling him to run away, are both acts of trespass or assault. If X throw a lighted squib at Y, who in self-defence throws it from him so that it falls on Z, this is an assault by the first thrower, X, on Z. The defendant may plead that his act was unavoidable, or that it was committed by leave of the plaintiff, or in self-defence, or (if the plaintiff be his child) that the assault was committed by way of reasonable chastisement. He may also plead that the case has already been disposed of by a court of summary jurisdiction; and magistrates dealing with ordinary charges of assault are empowered to give a certificate which protects the person charged against further proceedings.
A common assault is a misdemeanour, punishable by one year's imprisonment. It is plain that all crimes against the person, such as robbery or murder, include an assault. Special statutory provisions apply to the following cases of aggravated assault: (1) Indecent assault. It is an assault to take indecent liberties with a female, even if her consent is procured by fraud, as, e.g. if the offender pretends to be her husband. (2) Assaults on public officers, clergymen, &c. in the performance of their duties. (3) Assaults causing actual bodily harm, which are punishable by five years' penal servitude. Assaults with intent to do grievous bodily harm, as, e.g. by shooting, or administering poison, or placing an obstruction in front of a railway train, usually amount to felony, and are punishable with penal servitude for life. Maliciously starving a servant or apprentice is a misdemeanour.
Generally speaking, the same defences may be relied on in criminal and civil proceedings. But consent is no defence where the injury done extends to maiming, or to a breach of the peace. The principals in a prize-fight, for example, are guilty of assault, and all persons present at the fight are aiders and abettors in the commission of the offence.
In Scotland, the principle of the law of assault, and of its aggravations, is very much the same as that above stated. In the Scotch system, it is laid down that it is of the utmost importance in all cases of actual assault to ascertain who struck the first blow, and the party who receives it will be excused for retaliating, if he do not exceed the just and fair measure of resentment. There, too, the highest of all aggravations is the assault with intent to murder. It is also an aggravation that the assault has been committed in pursuance of an old grudge, and on a principle of revenge; where, also, the offence has been accompanied with an intent to compel a rise of wages, or to deter from working at a certain rate, or in pursuance of a combination entered into for these illegal purposes. Another aggravation of the offence in Scotland is its being committed by a child on its parent, by a husband on his wife, or by any person upon another within his own house, although the latter crime falls more strictly under the antiquated term of Hamesucken (q.v.). The remedy in Scotland is, as in England, by civil action of damages, and by a criminal prosecution, both being maintainable, and the latter usually at the suit of the Lord Advocate, as public prosecutor; but the private injured party may prosecute criminally should the Lord Advocate decline to do so.
The Scotch law formerly recognised a separate offence known as battery pendente lite, which consisted in assaulting an adversary in a lawsuit during its dependence. This offence was created by statute passed in 1584 and 1594, which provided, quaintly enough, that the offender should be punished by losing his cause. The statutes in question were repealed in 1826.
In the United States, the same general definition of an assault is accepted. Special statutes provide for punishment of assaults on government officials while in the discharge of their duty; but in general, assaults, whether with or without a dangerous weapon, are punishable under state laws rather than under those of the United States.