ASSAULT, BATTERY AND RELATED CRIMES "You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault"

(Dwight D. Eisenhower)
The idea behind these crimes, commonly called "offenses against the person", is that every person has a personal space that should not be violated without consent. There are old common law traditions protecting personal security and bodily integrity. It goes back to the Magna Charta and involves the practice of touching people without their permission. It used to be (and still is, according to some nonverbal behavior experts) that higher-status people (the wealthy) could touch lower-status people (the poor) whenever they wanted, but the poor could not touch the wealthy for any reason whatsoever. All that has changed or is changing, and the criminal law exerts a positive influence in helping create a more egalitarian and peaceful society in this regard. Many forms of violence are punished at law to preserve order in society, and the trick is to determine the punishment proportional to the crime. One of the things that the law looks at is the victim. It matters a great deal who the victim is. Traditionally, felonies have been reserved for victims who were police officers, paramedics, or other persons acting in the line of duty. As most students of criminal justice know, the law has been slow in helping the victims of spousal abuse, but it is now a felony is many states.Child abuse is different because traditionally, it has always included neglect as a form of abuse. Elderly abuse is a new area copying itself on the child abuse model. Hate crime is also a new area of concern. ASSAULT Assault is either (1) an attempted battery or (2) the placing of the victim in apprehension of receiving an immediate battery. ENDANGERMENT is a related offense to assault (but usually a misdemeanor) that involves recklessly endangering the safety of others. HAZING is a form of endangerment involving initiation rites which pose a threat to the health of the applicant. AGGRAVATED ASSAULT is a generic term for the most serious kinds of assaults, and this crime exists in order to tailor the punishment more efficiently. BATTERY Battery is the unlawful, unconsented touching of one human being by another human being. A few states have the offense of AGGRAVATED BATTERY, but not all. MAYHEM Mayhem is the intentional permanent disfigurement of one human being by another human being. Historically, it was tied to the importance of having able-bodied soldiers to engage in defense of the kingdom. Scarring and involuntary tattooing are included in most state statutes. Consent is not a defense for mayhem. North Carolina has different degrees of mayhem based on maliciousness and the extent of injuries. Some states also call this offense MAYHEM and TORTURE. RAPE Rape is the unlawful, unconsented "carnal knowledge" of a woman by a man. Sex crimes are treated as especially serious matters in criminal law, only one step below murder. Criminal sexual conduct does not have to involve physical injury to the victim. Historically, the only sex crimes were RAPE and SODOMY. From 1600 to 1970, the law of rape concentrated on the element of consent. Women had to show some resistance. Before the 1950s, there was the utmost resistance standard; in the 1950s, there was the reasonable resistance standard. In 1970, most states abolished the requirement that the victim's testimony of resistance had to be corroborated. In addition, most states passed rape shield laws prohibiting any testimony about a women's past sexual history. Many states also abolished the requirement that a rape had to be reported promptly. And, many states have abolished the marital exception. All forms of sexual penetration -- vaginal, anal, and oral -- fall under today's criminal sexual assault statutes. And the law is now gender-neutral. The elements of RAPE are: (1) actus reus of penetration; (2) actus reus of use of force or threat of force; (3) the circumstance of nonconsent; and (4) mens rea of engaging in sexual activity by force or threat of force without consent. Penetration is defined as "however slight". Merely putting a finger between the folds of skin over a vagina is penetration, and according to the intrinsic force standard, the act of penetration subsumes, or includes by inference, the act of force. Threats of force must have created an objectively reasonable fear OR a real fear of imminent bodily harm. Words do NOT have to be exchanged to express a threat. The law looks at the age, size, and mental condition of both perpetrator and victim. The physical location and relationship (if position of authority or domination) is also looked at. Proof of nonconsent does NOT require the prosecution to prove or disprove the victim announced any consent. The law looks at the physical actions rather than words. STATUTORY RAPE requires neither force, nor intent, nor nonconsent. Immaturity in age substitutes for all these elements. California and Alaska are the only states that permit a defense of mistake of age. To prove the mens rea element of rape, the prosecution looks at the prior behavior of the perpetrator, if they were in the habit of "scoring with girls", for example. The type of intent required by law is a specific intent -- to have intercourse by force and without consent. This often requires portraying the perpetrator as "kinky", into "rough sex", or if he/she likes it when their sex partner "struggles". The urge to twist nipples to inflict pain satisfies the mens rea element, for example.

CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONDUCT These are fairly new crimes that attempt to grade the degree of force; as follows:

1st degree -- sexual penetration and the age of the victim is considered an important element; also if the defendant was armed with a weapon, aided by another person (gang rape), or caused physical injury 2nd degree -- sexual contact and any element from the 1st degree is also present; "sexual contact" meaning contact with an "intimate area" 3rd degree -- sexual penetration where variation between the age of the victim and defendant is a factor; also if sexual penetration is accomplished with force (i.e., rough sex) 4th degree -- sexual contact and any other element from 3rd degree and also whether or not the defendant had any authority over the victim at the time; also if accomplished with some force (i.e., rough touching)

5th degree -- usually makes all forms on nonconsensual sexual contact at least a misdemeanor

ABORTION Abortion is the act of intentionally causing a miscarriage in a pregnant woman. FALSE IMPRISONMENT False imprisonment is the unlawful, unconsented confinement of a human being. KIDNAPPING Kidnapping is the unlawful, unconsented movement of a person of a person from one place to another place. THREATS The crime of THREATENING, sometimes called MENACING or TERRORIZING is the making of unequivocal, immediate, and specific threats with the intent to create fear in the victim. Depending on the state, the intent to create great bodily harm is required, but the main focus is the victim's fear. The threat can be conveyed by a third party or in any form. It's commonly used to prosecute bomb threats which cause evacuations of public places. COERCION, also called INTIMIDATION is a related offense involving inducing a person to do something against their will, such as participate in a crime or refrain from operating a competing business. Intimidation doesn't require the threat of violence, only the desire to control the behavior of somebody. EXTORTION, for example, doesn't necessarily require the element of violence but the usual payment of money or blackmail. STALKING is a related offense that requires proof of intent and repeated attempts to follow the victim or engage in other forms of HARASSMENT where there is no legal justification to do so. Some states, like Pennsylvania, have a combined stalking and harassment statute.