Battery is the offense of intentionally or recklessly causing unlawful physical contact with, or bodily harm to, another person, historically distinguished in common-law systems from assault, which covers the threat or attempt to cause such contact rather than contact actually completed. Under the traditional common-law framework, an assault that culminates in physical contact is prosecuted as battery, so the two offenses are frequently charged together or, in many modern statutory codes, merged into a single graded assault offense that no longer preserves the historical distinction between threat and contact. Battery is typically graded by the severity of the resulting harm and the circumstances of the contact, with an unwanted touching causing no injury generally treated as simple battery and an act causing serious bodily injury, involving a weapon, or committed against a protected category of victim treated as aggravated battery carrying substantially harsher penalties. The offense remains a foundational category in criminal law and tort law alike, since the same unlawful physical contact can give rise to both a criminal battery charge and a separate civil claim for damages by the person harmed.
Facts
Classification CodeBattery is graded into simple battery, a misdemeanor at common law and under most modern statutes, and aggravated battery, treated as a felony grade offense when it causes serious bodily injury or permanent disfigurement. 1 Typical PenaltyIn Florida, aggravated battery involving intentional infliction of great bodily harm is a second degree felony, while battery that unintentionally causes great bodily harm is treated as the lesser third degree felony. 1 Elements of OffenseBattery requires a volitional, offensive touch or contact made upon the victim by the actor, combined with a mental state in which the actor intends or knows that the action will cause that offensive touching. 1 Notable ExampleEnglish courts have split on whether battery is a pure common law offense or a statutory one: DPP v Taylor and DPP v Little treated it as a statutory offense under the Criminal Justice Act 1988, while the later case Haystead v DPP took the opposing, obiter view that battery remains a common law offense. 1 Jurisdiction VariationSeveral common law jurisdictions have abolished battery as a distinct offense: Scotland has no separate crime of battery at all, folding such conduct into assault, and the Canadian Criminal Code likewise has no offense named battery, instead using assault and assault causing bodily harm. 1 Classification
Offense GradeMinor or Summary Offense 1 Sources
1. Battery (crime) (Wikipedia)
Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_(crime), lead paragraph
It may be either simple or aggravated, and is distinct from assault, which is the act of creating reasonable fear or apprehension of such contact.
United States section, opening lines
At common law, simple battery is a misdemeanor.
United States section, Florida passage
In Florida, aggravated battery is the intentional infliction of great bodily harm and is a second-degree felony, whereas battery that unintentionally causes great bodily harm is considered a third-degree felony.
Generally section, second element
the actor intends or knows that their action will cause the offensive touching.
England and Wales section, statutory-offence subsection
This decision was contradicted in Haystead v DPP where the Divisional Court expressed the obiter opinion that battery remains a common law offense.
Scotland section
There is no distinct offence of battery in Scotland. The offence of assault includes acts that could be described as battery.
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