Assault

In the dictionary rendition, assault means an attack with blows or weapons, as well as by threats, hostile words, and other ways of menacing. Although assault rightly can refer to all forms of physical, psychological, and verbal aggression, its use in the legal system and by criminologists is more specific.

First and foremost, assault is an unlawful action. It is a form of aggression, either real or threatened, either with or without a weapon, that the state or some other legal entity has designated as a violation of the law. Assaults that are illegal are mostly those that cause or were intended to cause bodily harm, plus threats to that effect.

Second, there are “gray areas,” where aggressive actions may or may not be considered assault by law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies, the perpetrator, or the victim. For example, two acquaintances at a bar who briefly engage in a minor altercation, fueled by several rounds of alcoholic beverages, with one shoving the other to the floor after a heated debate about the relative merits of their favorite presidential candidates, is an assault, “technically speaking.” However, the context of the incident-including the race, age, and other characteristics of the two parties; whether a person was injured; the degree to which the incident disturbed other patrons; the reputation of the bar with local police; and a host of other factors-will actually determine whether or not the incident “officially” is regarded as an assault crime, with arrests made by the police. Equally, if not more problematic, is assault involving members of the same household. In these cases, both the perpetrator and the victim may not consider the action unlawful or even inappropriate. Further, societal norms have shifted over the years, in part through the efforts of advocacy groups, such that actions that were once considered “private” are today viewed with much less tolerance by the general public, the police, prosecutors, and the courts. It is wise when considering any kind of data or information related to assault (and any other crime) to remember the basic distinction between prevalence, or the real rate at which something occurs, and incidence, the rate at which the same phenomenon is officially counted.

In the nomenclature of violent crime classifications, assault is considered distinctive from other forms of violence when reported in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, the Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), and other types of official crime accounting systems that estimate the incidence rates for various kinds of crime. Specifically, homicide, rape or sexual assault, and robbery are counted separately as crimes of violence. As well, family violence and intimate partner violence (IPV) are regarded as different categories of crime. Even so, all of these crimes involve an attack by one person on another. Hence, assault refers to a more narrow range of interpersonal violence where physical force and threats are used by a person (or groups of persons) with the intention of causing harm to another. However, criminal codes of states vary on definitions of assault, especially in regard to whether a threat, or menacing, would be considered within the definition. Some states consider menacing or attempts to menace, which is placing another person in fear of bodily injury, as a form of assault, while other states take a stricter approach, defining a threat by the presence or use of a weapon before the action is severe enough to warrant arrest and prosecution.

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