Assault vs Battery



Assault and Battery are two different criminal charges that can be put against guilty person. Assault is the threat of violence while battery is physical violence. Some times, both charges leveled simultaneously against a person and sometimes separately. It depends upon type of crime, whether it is just threat or having evidence of physical contact.

Assault

Assault is a threat of harm that causes fear of physical hurt in a victim. The charge of assault is only applied, if the victim has only been threatened not touched by criminal. In short, a person who is charged by assault has not committed a physical harm to victim. There could be different forms of assault like waving a weapon, pointing a gun at any person, verbally threatening a person of committing a physical harm in future, use of any potential weapon to threaten a person like bat of baseball. Though, there are different types of punishment for an assault criminal in different countries, however the intensity of punishment is very low than Battery. The very important aspect of assault is that, in such type of cases it is very difficult to prove the crime. The reason is that there is no evidence of physical harm

Battery

Battery is the extreme stage of Assault. Battery is a violent contact between two persons, in which physical contact must involve. A person, who commit battery not only threaten the victim but also become the cause of any physical injury. This injury could be of any type, that could occur because of criminal’s physical contact with victim like beating, use of any dangerous thing that could cause cutting of skin, use of weapon that could cause severe injury etc. The law of battery is also applicable for those persons, who touch anything related to victim’s body for the purpose of pay harm to victim like touching the hat or purse of victim. Battery is that type of contact that must be intended. The punishment of battery is different in different countries; however the type of punishment depends upon intensity of injury.

Difference and Similarities • The major difference between assault and battery is the amount of contact. o In case of assault there is no physical harm to victim, it is just threat from criminal to victim. o In case of battery, there must be some physical contact between criminal and victim. • A person, who receives punishment of battery, is essentially guilty of assault. On the contrary, the assault crime has no charges of battery. • It is very easy to prove the offense of battery rather than assault. The reason is that victim can easily prove the physical evidence of battery charge. • The punishment of battery charge against a person is very tough as compared to assault.

Conclusion

It is the fact that both assault and battery are criminal charges, but they are different from one another. This difference is amount of contact. However, a person who commits a battery crime also has to face assault charge.