Non-fatal offences against the person, under English law, are generally taken to mean offences which take the form of an attack directed at another person, that do not result in the death of any person. Such offences where death occurs are considered homicide, whilst sexual offences are generally considered separately, since they differ substantially from other offences against the person in theoretical basis and composition. Non-fatal offences against the person mainly derive from the Offences against the Person Act 1861, although no definition of assault or battery is given there.
Offences against the person include minor forms of battery (any unlawful touching of another person); its complementary offence, assault (causing the apprehension of a battery, even when one has not yet occurred); and various more serious offences which are based on assault and battery (together called "common assault"). This includes assault occasioning actual bodily harm, where the victim suffers injuries such as bruising or skin abrasions (the converse being an injury that is "transient and trifling"); wounding (a piercing of all layers of the skin); and causing grievous bodily harm (injuries more serious than in actual bodily harm, for example broken bones). The latter two offences may be committed "with intent", meaning there is an additional mens rea component that makes the defendant more culpable for their actions. Whilst recklessness is sufficient for most offences against the person – that the defendant foresaw the risk of the proscribed injury occurring without necessarily intending it to happen – this is insufficient for crimes of intent.
General characteristics
Common to all crimes against the person is the infringement of the right to bodily integrity. It extends to the touching of clothing, for example, and where no physical harm actually results. However, if all touchings were criminalised, this would interfere with the right to liberty. It is the very touching, and not the harm, that is the violation of principle. This is related to the right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The central statute on this topic is Offences against the Person Act 1861, which brought together a multitude of difference offences, with much overlap and inconsistent terminology. These include both the actual infliction and the threat of violence. Although criticised, the Act has not been replaced.
In the context of the law of attempts, the Crown Prosecution Service advises that "where the evidence demonstrates that the suspect intended to cause an injury that is substantially more serious than that (if any) which was in fact caused, prosecutors should consider the circumstances of the case as a whole as well as the relevant sentencing guideline to determine the appropriate charge."
Assault and battery
A distinction is drawn between the offence of assault and that of battery. Assault is the apprehension of the possibility of immediate unlawful violence, and battery that of the infliction of such violence. Several proposals, including one from the Criminal Law Revision Committee in 1980 have proposed merging the offences. However, the distinction was confirmed in DPP v Little in 1992. There, the conflation of assault and battery was criticised as duplicitous. If D throws a punch at V, who dodges, this is likely to be an assault but not a battery; if V is attacked from behind, this may constitute a battery without an assault. Actions which constitute ordinary daily life are not considered assault or battery, for example, jostling on a crowded train. The term "common assault" is used to refer to either a technical assault or a battery.