{"id":2615,"date":"2018-11-02T18:50:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T18:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/askanacademic.com\/uncategorized\/what-is-assault-criminal-law-119\/"},"modified":"2022-08-31T10:32:26","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T10:32:26","slug":"what-is-assault-criminal-law-119","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askanacademic.com\/law\/what-is-assault-criminal-law-119\/","title":{"rendered":"The criminal offence of assault and how liability is established"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Question<\/h2>\n<p>What is the criminal offence of Assault and how is liability established?<\/p>\n<h2>Answer<\/h2>\n<p>Assault is a common law offence, defined in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/fagan-v-mpc.php\">Fagan v MPC<\/a> as when a defendant \u2018intentionally or recklessly causes the victim to apprehend immediate unlawful personal violence\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The Actus reus of assault is firstly that the \u2018victim apprehends\u2019, which does not require fear (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/r-v-lamb.php\">R v Lamb<\/a>). Second, the violence must be immediate, rather than a future threat, but the court tends to interpret immediacy broadly (Virgo, 1997; R v Constanza). Thirdly, there must be a fear of unlawful personal violence, which is held to be any non-consensual contact (R v Ireland), whether or not the apprehended violence would be serious (Child and Ormerod, 2015). It should be noted that the Actus reus can be satisfied through words alone (R v Constanza), and also may be negated through words, as demonstrated in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/tuberville-v-savage.php\">Tuberville v Savage<\/a>; the statement \u2018if it were not assize-time, I would not take such language from you\u2019 negated the defendant\u2019s assault.<\/p>\n<p>The Mens rea of assault is that the defendant intended to or was reckless as to causing the victim\u2019s apprehension of unlawful force. Recklessness involves a consideration of whether the defendant recognised the possibility of their actions causing the victim\u2019s apprehension of unlawful force (R v Venna).<\/p>\n<h2>References<\/h2>\n<p>Child, J and Ormerod, D., (2015) Essentials of Criminal Law. Oxford University Press<\/p>\n<p>Virgo, G., (1997) Offences Against the Person \u2013 Do-It-Yourself Law Reform CLJ 56 251<\/p>\n<p>Fagan v MPC [1969] 1 QB 439<\/p>\n<p>R v Lamb [1967] 2 QB 981<\/p>\n<p>R v Constanza [1997] Crim LR 576<\/p>\n<p>R v Ireland [1998] AC 147<\/p>\n<p>Tuberville v Savage [1669] 1 Mood Rep 3<\/p>\n<p>R v Venna [1976] QB 421<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The legal definition of assault in criminal law will be examined, along with an explanation of how the offence is committed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO 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