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Federal Assault-Battery Charges

Section 112 of the United States Code

Section 112 of the United States Code

The criminal law of the United States is intended to provide protection to both its residents and its visitors. Criminal laws dealing with the offense of assault and battery, for instance, are geared toward the needs and privileges of State residents across the wide spectrum of local statutes, in contrast to which Federal criminal laws cover this issue.

Section 114 of the United States Code

Section 114 of the United States Code

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

Section 115 of the United States Code

Section 115 of the United States Code

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

Section 116 of the United States Code

Section 116 of the United States Code

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.

Section 117 of the United States Code

Section 117 of the United States Code

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. 

Section 113 of the United States Code

Section 113 of the United States Code

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.