Editing Assault (section)

===Battery===
{{main|Battery (crime)}}
Battery is a criminal offense that involves the use of physical force against another person without their [[consent]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dripps |first=Donald A. |date=November 1992 |title=Beyond Rape: An Essay on the Difference between the Presence of Force and the Absence of Consent |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1123045 |journal=Columbia Law Review |volume=92 |issue=7 |pages=1780–1809 |doi=10.2307/1123045 |jstor=1123045 |issn=0010-1958|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Criminal Violence In Sport |date=2010 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781509955640.ch-005 |work=Modern Sports Law |pages=173–217 |access-date=2023-03-23 |publisher=Bloomsbury|doi=10.5040/9781509955640.ch-005 |isbn=978-1-8411-3685-1 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dripps |first=Donald A. mname |date=2018 |title=Why Rape Should Be a Federal Crime |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3095741 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.3095741 |issn=1556-5068|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It is a type of assault and is considered a serious crime. Battery can include a wide range of actions, from slapping someone to causing serious harm or even death.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Neal |first=Edgar C. |date=1994 |title=Human aggression, second edition, edited by Robert A. Baron and Deborah R. Richardson. New York, Plenum, 1994, xx + 419 pp |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/1098-2337(1994)20:6%3C461::aid-ab2480200606%3E3.0.co;2-o |journal=Aggressive Behavior |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=461–463 |doi=10.1002/1098-2337(1994)20:6<461::aid-ab2480200606>3.0.co;2-o |issn=0096-140X|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bidwell |first1=Lee D. Millar |last2=Barnett |first2=Ola W. |last3=Miller-Perrin |first3=Cindy L. |last4=Perrin |first4=Robin |date=April 1997 |title=Family Violence across the Lifespan: An Introduction |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1318672 |journal=Teaching Sociology |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=198 |doi=10.2307/1318672 |jstor=1318672 |issn=0092-055X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Depending on the severity of the offense, it can carry a wide range of punishments, including jail time, fines, and probation.

In jurisdictions that make a distinction between the two, assault usually accompanies [[Battery (crime)|battery]] if the assailant both threatens to make unwanted contact and then carries through with this threat. See [[common assault]]. The elements of battery are that it is a volitional act,<ref>An act is volitional if it is purposeful and deliberate as opposed to reflexive or involuntary (see Dennis J. Baker, Glanville Williams, ''Textbook of Criminal Law'' (London, Sweet & Maxwell 2012) at p 901). For example. a person who has restless leg syndrome kicks his wife while asleep. The contact, although, harmful, would not constitute battery because the act was not willful.</ref> done for the purpose of causing a harmful or offensive contact with another person or under circumstances that make such contact substantially certain to occur, and which causes such contact.<ref>A criminal battery may also be committed if the harmful or offensive contact is due to the criminal negligence of the defendant.</ref>