To supplement the State statutes on the books throughout the United States covering instances of assault and battery, Federal law provides for regulations covering cases that occur outside the geographical limits of states and other local territories or hold implications for the Federal government. These laws can be found in codified form in the United States Code, which is issued every six years by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, which is based out of the House of Representatives, with the changes that have been enacted to Federal laws in the meantime.

 

 

Title 18 of the Code addresses "Crimes and Criminal Procedures," in which Chapter 7 is devoted to "Crimes" and Chapter 7 to "Assault." Assault and battery cases of unusual significance for the country are addressed by Sections 111, 112, and 115. 111 and 115 address, respectively, acts of and attempts at interfering with or exacting retribution for the duties of present or former officials of the Government, and 112 focuses on "internationally protected persons" such as diplomats. 

 

 

In regard to unusual kinds of jurisdiction, Section 113 and Section 117 focus on, respectively, basic forms of and domestic occurrences of assault in "the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States," unusual examples of which include American spacecraft in flight and the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay. Episodes of torture or maiming which occur in such vicinities are addressed by Section 114. 

 

 

The ambiguity raised by the place accorded to the practice of female genital mutilation in some communities, where they are regarded as initiation rites, is intended to be dispelled by Section 116 of this part of the Code, which only allows such practices for medical purposes. Assault and battery cases falling under Federal law may be tried in Federal court and result in Federal prison terms and have their specific penalties mandated by the relevant United States Code section.

 

 

Assault and Battery: Federal Assault/Battery Charges: Section 111 United States Code Title 18 ("Crimes and Criminal Procedure"), Part I ("Crimes"), Chapter 7 ("Assault"), Section 111 deals with violent acts aimed at interfering with how public officials perform their duties or acts of retaliation against them for their past performance of duties. Actions constituting simple assaults can be punished for terms of imprisonment lasting up to a year. More serious attacks, such as aggravated assaults, can lead to penalties of imprisonment of up to eight years. 

 

 

Assaults resulting in serious injury may be punished with prison terms lasting for as long as two decades. All of these penalties may be replaced by or supplemented with fines. In such a case the Federal Government will prosecute the offender, rather a local court.

 

 

Assault and Battery: Federal Assault/Battery Charges: Section 112 Section 112 of Chapter 7 ("Crimes") of Part I ("Crimes") of Title 18 ("Crimes and Criminal Procedures") of the United States Code deals with crimes of assault and battery committed against foreign nationals in the United States who are considered privileged guests of the American Government. A likely example of such an individual can be furnished by a diplomat. 

 

 

This Federal law is intended to deal with the confusions that may arise over jurisdictional issues in such cases and also to incorporate an awareness of the larger concerns of American relations with other countries. In addition to attacks on the person of an "internationally protected" individual, Section 112 also covers attacks committed against such individuals’ vehicles and residences. Violent attacks and the abridgment of rights, as through an act of kidnapping, both fall under Section 112. In a case of "simple assault" a penalty of three years' imprisonment may be imposed. Ten years of imprisonment, on the other hand, can result from aggravated assault under Section 112.

 

 

Assault and Battery: Federal Assault/Battery Charges: To supplement the state assault laws on the books throughout the United States, United States Code Section 113, Chapter 7, Part I, Title 18, addresses assaults committed in the "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States." These essentially include those areas which fall under the general control of the United States, but for a variety of reasons that may stem from such cases as not being geographically contiguous or being subject to special exemptions, are not administered by any clear-cut local authority.

 

 

Simple assaults can incur terms of imprisonment for up to six months or, when the victim is under sixteen years of age, one year. Felonious assault charges leading to more serious injuries can be punished for periods of up to ten years. Regions defined as falling within the United States' "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction" include bodies of water such as the Great Lakes or the high seas within American boundaries, islands and other small parts of land, and special American holdings in other countries, such as Guantanamo Bay or embassies.

 

 

Assault and Battery: Federal Assault/Battery Charges: Section 114 of United States Code, Title 18 ("Crimes and Criminal Procedures"), Part I ("Crimes"), Chapter 7 ("Assaults") supplements the state laws on assault on the books for cases which take place outside of the normal jurisdictions under state law and are of a degree considered unusually severe. The latter include "maiming" and "torture," as defined elsewhere in the United States Code. 

 

 

The special areas governed by the United States Code are defined as falling within the "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States." Such areas include the high seas, the Great Lakes, holdings in other countries, islands and other small bodies of land, and areas under the special supervision of the Federal Government. Because of the severity of the crimes covered by Section 114, the penalties imposed for them may include terms of imprisonment lasting up to twenty years. One form of assault covered by Section 114 is that committed with the use of a corrosive or caustic substance.

 

 

Assault and Battery: Federal Assault/Battery Charges: Acts of assault and battery attempted for the purpose of altering the operations of public officials or exacting retribution for the prior operations of public officials are punishable not under state law but through the provisions of United States Code, Section 115, Chapter 7, Part I, Term 18, entitled “Acts”.  These may fall under the terms of punishment set by Section 115, which can include murders, assaults and kidnappings of the immediate family members of such Government officials or attempts at commissioning such acts. 

 

 

For the purposes of the law, "immediacy" in family relations is defined in terms of close blood relatives such as children, parents, siblings, the adoptive equivalents of such roles, and as relatives by blood or marriage living in the official's household. Another kind of assault which is covered under Section 115 is the threat to undertake the kidnapping or murder of or the assault on a Government official as motivated by his or her present or past performance of official duties.

 

 

Assault and Battery: Federal Assault/Battery Charges: Section 116 in Chapter 7, Part I, Term 18 of the United States Code sets down definitions of relevant offenses and the maximum terms of punishments that may be incurred for the crime of female genital mutilation. Federally-administered rather than State-administered law addresses this offense in order to dispel any possible ambiguity relating to this practice's possible occurrence, in circumstances not necessarily viewed by either the responsible or the affected party as a violent attack, as either a medical procedure, as in the instance of childbirth, or as a culturally specific initiation ritual. 

 

 

The latter such context is not allowable in any circumstances under the United States Code. The former may be a permissible justification if it can be shown to have arisen out of medical necessity and to have occurred through the actions of a trained medical professional. A penalty of up to five years imprisonment may be incurred by a conviction of this charge under Section 116.

 

 

Assault and Battery: Federal Assault/Battery Charges: Under the United States Code, Section 117 of Chapter 7 on Assaults of Part I on Crimes of Title 18 on Crimes and Criminal Procedures deals with the punishment of instances of assault and battery arising in domestic contexts in jurisdictions that do not lie inside of conventional State-administered areas, which may include Indian tribal areas or the "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States."

 

 

Domestic abuse is considered to constitute an attack committed against an "intimate partner." A term of imprisonment lasting for up to five years is a possible penalty to be incurred by offenses committed by defendants with two previous such charges on their records. When serious physical injury occurs in such cases, the maximum term of imprisonment is doubled. 

 

 

The "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States" can include such areas as bodies of water under American law, including the open seas and the Great Lakes, areas under America control in other countries such as embassies or the military base Guantanamo Bay.

 

Laws for the prohibition and enforcement of assault and battery are determined by the local statutes of American states. Federal criminal law also possesses provisions for pressing assault charges. 

 

 

Beyond the specific issues related to extra-jurisdictional assault charges, the general framework of law in the United States lying beyond the specific purview of state governments may be found in codified form in the United States Code. The Office of the Law Revision Counsel, an office of the House of Representatives, issues a publication every six years which compiles and presents all of the changes made to the Code in the time since the issuing of the last edition, a practice which has been regularly maintained since 1926.

The published edition of the Code organizes all of the disparate subjects addressed by its provisions into fifty sections, referred to as "titles." Of these, Federal criminal law can be found in codified form in Title 18, "Crimes and Criminal Procedure." Part I of Title 18 is entitled "Crimes," within which Chapter 1 takes "Assault" as its subject.

 

 

In general, Federal criminal law, as set down in Title 18, treats all felonies committed within the "special maritime and territorial jurisdictions" with terms of imprisonment which can last up to ten years, with exceptions made for murder, which can potentially carry much stricter penalties allowed to include as much as twenty years' worth of imprisonment.

 

 

As to the specific provisions related to assault charges, a "simple" assault under Federal criminal law, one distinguished from more severe "aggravated" assaults by lieu of not being accomplished with the means for or implemented with the motive of serious bodily harm, carries a maximum penalty of up to six months imprisonment. The youth of the victim can act as an aggravating factor.

The criminal law measures governing relatively conventional cases of assault/battery within the United States, in both the comparatively less serious form of "simple" assaults and the more serious one of "aggravated" assaults.

 

 

The United States Code administers laws understood as lying beyond the purview or capacities of State governance. The United States is updated every six years with all of the relevant changes that have been made since, and has been since 1926. 

 

 

Responsibility for this task is relegated to the special branch of the House of Representatives known as the Office of the Law Revision Counsel, which publishes the new rules as divided by the various subject matters into sections known as "titles." Title 18 deals with "Crimes and Criminal Procedures," in which Part I is devoted to "Crimes." Chapter 7 of the "Crimes" section comes under the heading "Assault," by direct reference to which Section 114 can be found.

 

 

The language of the "special maritime, and territorial jurisdiction of the United States" for the purposes of Section 114 and other provisions of criminal law in the United States Code, refers to a variety of circumstances and settings outside of normally defined state territory. These include the high seas, the Great Lakes, holdings in other countries, islands, and specially-operated Federal buildings.

 

 

The severity of the kinds of assault/battery covered under Section 114 means that a penalty may be imposed of a term of imprisonment lasting up to twenty years. Specific actions covered by this section include "torture" (as defined elsewhere in Federal criminal law), "maiming," and "disfigurement." Assault/battery committed against features of the face or members of the body are covered by Section 114. Other possible crimes considered by Section 114 include the use of corrosive, scalding hot, or caustic liquids

United States law concerned with the prohibition and punishment of battery and assault cases, as concern American citizens  with no special Government status, generally operates through local State statutes. Battery and assault cases, which are focused not simply against individual welfare but against the operations of the United States Government, come under the provision of Section 115 of the relevant part of the United States Code.

 

 

Assault cases in which the defendants are found to have entertained such motives will thus be referred to the responsibility of Federal courts, and if found to the favor of the Government, will lead to the defendant being imprisoned in a Federal penitentiary.

 

 

Section 115 can be found by referring to Title 18 of the United States Code, one of the fifty such sections into which that publication is divided as dictated by subject matter. The subject matter of Title 18 is "Crimes and Criminal Procedures." Part I of Title 18 concerns itself with "Crimes" and in Chapter 7 contains the provisions, including Section 115, for "assault laws.

 

 

Under the assault laws of Section 115, actions attempted or taken against the safety of immediate family members of officers of the United States Government, as may include judges, Government figures, or law enforcement officials and may be accomplished through acts of or attempts at abduction, homicide and other physical attacks, are punishable under Federal law. 

 

 

Such is the case if it can be shown that the relevant assault cases occurred for the purpose of altering the performance of the victim's family member in a Government position. Threats to take the same kinds of actions against the relevant officials themselves will also fall under these assault laws, again with the proviso that said assault cases must be shown to have proceeded from the target's official status and functions.

 

 

Federal assault laws also cover attacks targeted against former Government officials or the families of former Government officials as motivated by the past performance of government duties. The "immediate" family members involved in assault cases as fall under the provisions of Section 115 include spouses, offspring, siblings, parents, and people to whom the present or former official acts as guardian or adoptive parent, as well as people related by blood or marriage to the official and residing in his or her household

Common forms of assault and battery occurring within State jurisdictions are subject to local State statutes. Assault and battery cases considered unusual either for severity or ambiguity are addressed by Federal law.

 

 

Cultural sanctions for female genital mutilation generally pertain to adolescent girls or young women. With this fact in mind, Section 116 specifically addresses the assault and battery of individuals under the age of eighteen. It pertains to procedures which willfully "circumcise, excise or infibulate" the vagina, specifically the clitoris and labia majora or minora.

 

 

Exceptions may be made for the filing of an assault and battery charge in which the action is required for health purposes, as may arise in relation to childbirth and in which it is conducted by a medical professional. An exemption from an assault charge must be for legitimate medical reasons, however, excluding strictly culturally-based practices, whether they motivate the practitioner's actions or the patient's participation.

 

 

The penalties which may be imposed on someone found guilty of an assault charge due to an act of female genital mutilation may comprise as much as a period of five years of imprisonment under Section 116.

In general, the local criminal laws of individual American states define and impose the mandatory penalties for acts of assault and battery. Because some areas of United States territory are not governed by any local government body, Federal law on assault and battery has been enacted.

 

 

As determined by the provisions of Section 117, Federal law sets forth that people who commit some kind of violent offense against an "intimate partner," such as a spouse, and have a prior record of two similar offenses are to be jailed for, at most, five years. This term may be substituted for or supplemented with the levying of fines. 

 

 

The special jurisdictions administered by Federal law include the "special maritime and territorial jurisdictions of the United States or Indian country." In the instance that a domestic assault causes serious injury, the maximum penalties increase.

 

 

Responsibility for the handling of such offenses may be handed over to the relevant Federal, State or Indian tribal court. The "special maritime and territorial jurisdictions of the United States" include ambiguous spaces falling under United States ownership such as territory on the high seas, the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River along the International Date Line, American spacecraft, Federal buildings on State land but specially requested by the Government, holdings within other national borders such as embassies, and islands.