"Assault and battery" sounds like one crime, but it's two ideas. And in Canada, "battery" isn't even a criminal charge. Here's how it works in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.
"Assault and battery" gets said so often that it sounds like a single crime. It's really two different ideas, and whether the law treats them separately depends heavily on where you live.
The classic definition goes like this. Assault is making someone fear they're about to be hit. Battery is actually hitting them. Swing at someone and miss, and that's assault. Connect, and that's battery. But in Canada and much of Australia, both are simply called "assault," and even in the US, plenty of states blur the line.
Here's how assault vs. battery works in each country.
The distinction comes from old English common law:
In many places, words alone aren't enough for assault. There usually has to be something that makes the threat feel real and immediate.
These ideas exist in civil law too. You can sue someone for assault or battery even if police never lay a charge.
The US is where the two are most likely to be separate crimes, but it depends on the state.
California keeps them apart. Simple assault under Penal Code 240 is an unlawful attempt, combined with the present ability, to commit a violent injury on someone. Battery under Penal Code 242 is any willful and unlawful use of force or violence on another person. Both are usually misdemeanors with up to six months in jail, though simple battery carries a higher maximum fine ($2,000 versus $1,000 for assault).
Other states combine them. Many follow the Model Penal Code approach, where "assault" covers both attempting to cause and actually causing bodily injury, and "battery" doesn't appear in the criminal code at all. The same punch could be charged as battery in one state and assault in the next.
Either way, both get far more serious with aggravating factors, like a weapon, a serious injury, or a victim such as a police officer. That's where aggravated assault and aggravated battery come in, and those are often felonies.
Here's something many Canadians don't realise after years of American TV: there's no crime called "battery" in the Criminal Code.
Section 265 defines assault broadly. You commit assault if, without consent, you apply force to someone directly or indirectly; attempt or threaten, by an act or gesture, to apply force when you have (or seem to have) the present ability to do it; or approach or block someone while openly carrying a weapon or an imitation of one.
So a swing and a miss, and a punch that lands, are both assault. Charges are then graded by seriousness. Simple assault (section 266) carries up to five years. Assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm (section 267) carries up to 10. Aggravated assault, which means wounding, maiming, disfiguring or endangering someone's life (section 268), carries up to 14.
The same definition of assault also sits underneath Canada's sexual assault offences, which are charged separately and carry heavier penalties.
"Battery" does still exist in Canadian civil law, so you might see it in a lawsuit. You just won't see it on a criminal charge.
England and Wales stay closest to the traditional split. Common assault and battery are separate offences under section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. Both are summary offences, dealt with in the magistrates' court, with a maximum of six months in prison.
In practice, battery is usually charged as "assault by beating," which confuses a lot of people because no beating is required. It just means force was used.
When the injury is more serious, prosecutors move up to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) under section 47 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which carries up to five years, and then to grievous bodily harm (GBH).
Australia generally looks more like Canada. In New South Wales, "common assault" under section 61 of the Crimes Act covers both causing someone to fear immediate violence and actually making unlawful contact. The maximum is two years in prison. More serious offences include assault occasioning actual bodily harm and wounding or grievous bodily harm. Other states use similar structures, sometimes under different names.
For most people, the label matters less than what happened. In all four countries, how seriously a case is treated usually depends on whether anyone was hurt and how badly, whether a weapon was involved, who the victim was, whether it happened in a domestic setting (which often triggers specific charging and bail policies), and whether the accused has a record.
Consent and self-defence matter for both, too. Contact in a sport you agreed to play generally isn't assault, which is part of why fights in pro hockey are handled by the league rather than police, as we explained in Is It Legal to Fight in Hockey? And using reasonable force to protect yourself can be a complete defence.
Here's the quick version by country:
So when it comes to assault vs. battery, the real takeaway is this: a threat can be a crime on its own, contact without consent can be a crime even with no injury, and what it's called depends on which side of the border you're on.
This article is for general information only and isn't legal advice. If you've been charged, speak to a criminal defence lawyer where you live.
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