6 Types of Assault from the Standpoint of the Law

Even if you are not a lawyer or work in the law enforcement community, you probably know what assault means. You know that it is an act of violence. You also know that the police take such criminal acts very seriously.

What you may not know is that there are different kinds of assault from the standpoint of criminal law. We will talk about some of them right now.

Simple Assault

Simple assault is one of the most common types to work its way through the court system. For simple assault, TN is one of the states that is known to come down on defendants harshly. However, several other states follow the same rigid criminal prosecution policies for defendants who are accused of it.

Simple assault means that you came into physical contact with a person against their will. You may have caused harm by doing so, but not necessarily. What some people don’t know, though, is that sometimes, the law will charge someone with simple assault even if they simply threatened another person but did not make physical contact with them.

Aggravated Assault

Aggravated assault is usually considered to be more serious than simple assault. It is an unlawful attack made by one person upon another. The intended purpose in such a situation is to inflict serious or aggravated bodily injury. It is this intention to commit harm that makes this a more severe offense.

Assault with a Deadly Weapon

Assault with a deadly weapon is a situation where a person attacks someone else with an object that is potentially capable of inflicting serious harm upon them. What’s interesting about this charge is that the object need not necessarily be something like a gun or a knife. It could be a large, sharp stick that someone picks up off the ground if the intention is to seriously hurt the other person with it.

Felony Assault

Felony assault is sometimes comparable in court to assault in the second degree. This is when someone attacks someone else and causes serious injury or attempts to do so.

The injuries that could bring this charge include impairment or loss of an organ or limb. They might also include protracted disfigurement or substantial risk of death. Someone convicted of such a crime can expect to spend several years in jail at a minimum.

Sexual Assault

Sexual assault is an assault that contains elements of a sexual nature. It is usually an attack on a person that occurs without the victim’s consent, and that also involves sexual contact, such as attempted rape, penetrating the victim’s body, or forced oral sex.

Vehicular Assault

Vehicular assault is similar to assault with a deadly weapon. In such a case, though, a vehicle is used as a weapon.

If someone tries to intentionally run a person down in a crosswalk during a road rage incident, for example, that would be vehicular assault. This is another charge that will come with several years in jail if the perpetrator is convicted.