What Assault and Battery?
In
criminal law, assault and battery are considered one offense, however, in tort law or civil law
assault and battery are two completely different offenses. Assault and battery are intentional torts, meaning the person intended to touch or harm a person or property. Example: throwing a rock at a window - touching a person against their will, and so on.
An assault is defined as the intentional threat to cause an injury by force. The victim will feel scared and afraid of what might occur. Assault can occur even without the person really meaning to do harm such as pointing a toy gun that looks like a real gun from feet away while threatening harm. The person does not realize the gun is a toy and was not actually harmed in the act, however, the person with the toy gun could be held liable for the action as the defendant felt threatened.
Battery is the intentional touching of a person against their will. The touching of a person or their property does not have to cause an injury. The intent of touching did not have to be to harm or hurt the person and no injury had to be occur in order to be liable for battery. If a person states to not touch them, and you go ahead and touch then have committed battery.
If you are ever in an argument and decide to spit on the person and walk away, you committed battery by spitting on them even if there were no injuries involved.