7.3: Types of Battery Crimes
- Page ID
- 69929
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Simple Battery
The crime of simple battery is defined in section 242 of the California Penal Code.
A battery is any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another.
Battery Act
The criminal act element required for battery in most jurisdictions is an unlawful touching, often described as physical contact. This criminal act element is what distinguishes assault from battery, although an individual can be convicted of both crimes if he or she commits separate acts supported by the appropriate intent. The defendant can touch the victim with an instrumentality, like shooting the victim with a gun, or can hit the victim with a thrown object, such as rocks or a bottle. The defendant can also touch the victim with a vehicle, knife, or a substance, such as spitting on the victim or spraying the victim with a hose.
Example of Battery Act
Chris, a newly hired employee at McDonald’s, becomes angry at Geoff (a customer) and pours steaming-hot coffee on his hand. Although Chris did not touch Geoff with any part of his body, he did pour a substance that unlawfully touched Geoff’s body, which could be sufficient to constitute the criminal act element for battery.
Battery Intent
The criminal intent element required for battery varies, depending on the jurisdiction. At early common law, battery was a purposeful or knowing touching. Many states follow the common law approach and require specific intent or purposely, or general intent or knowingly (Fla. Stat. Ann. § 784.03, 2011). Others include reckless intent (K.S.A. § 21-3412, 2011), or negligent intent (R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-5-2.2, 2011). Jurisdictions that include reckless or negligent intent generally require actual injury, serious bodily injury, or the use of a deadly weapon.52
Felony Battery
The crime of felony battery is defined in section 243(d) of the California Penal Code.
(d) When a battery is committed against any person and serious bodily injury is inflicted on the person, the battery is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year or imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for two, three, or four years.53 A felony battery requires serious bodily injury. There are many types of injuries that can qualify as serious, including: broken bones, fractures, unconsciousness, concussion, impairment of organ function, wounds requiring stitches.
For example, Jack and Jamal get into a street fight. Jamal punches Jack in the jaw and knocks him out. When Jack falls to the ground, he hits his head on the curb of the sidewalk. The fall results in a concussion. Unless Jamal can prove he acted in self-defense, his actions qualify as a felony battery.54
Sexual Battery
The crime of sexual battery is defined in section 243.4 of the California Penal Code.
(a) Any person who touches an intimate part of another person while that person is unlawfully restrained by the accused or an accomplice, and if the touching is against the will of the person touched and is for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, is guilty of sexual battery. A violation of this subdivision is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, and by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000); or by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years, and by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
As used in this subdivision, “touches” means physical contact with another person, whether accomplished directly, through the clothing of the person committing the offense, or through the clothing of the victim.
“Intimate part” means the sexual organ, anus, groin, or buttocks of any person, and the breast of a female.56
Actor Kevin Spacey
The Los Angeles District Attorney's office stated, in April 2018, that it would investigate an allegation that Spacey had sexually assaulted an adult male in 1992. In July 2018, three more allegations of sexual assault against Spacey were revealed by Scotland Yard, bringing the total number of open investigations in the UK to six. In September 2018, a lawsuit filed at Los Angeles Superior Court claimed that Spacey sexually assaulted an unnamed masseur in October 2016 at a house in Malibu, California.
In December 2018, Spacey was charged with a felony for allegedly sexually assaulting journalist Heather Unruh's 18-year-old son in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in July 2016. Spacey pleaded not guilty to the charge on January 7, 2019. Unruh's son told police that he was texting with his girlfriend throughout the alleged "groping" incident. Spacey's defense attorneys spent months trying to obtain copies of the texts and the phone itself. In mid-May 2019, Unruh's son's personal attorney informed the court that the phone in question was "missing." On June 4, 2019, the defense learned that, when Unruh gave the police her son's phone in 2017, she admitted that she had deleted some of the text messages. Later that month, her son filed a lawsuit against Spacey, claiming emotional damages. Shortly later, on July 5, 2019, they withdrew the lawsuit.
On July 17, 2019, the criminal assault charge against Spacey was dropped by the Cape and Islands prosecutors. When the anonymous massage therapist who accused him died, the last remaining criminal case against Spacey was closed.
On September 9, 2020, Anthony Rapp accused Spacey in a complaint about actions that allegedly happened in 1986 (sexual assault and sexual battery) and intentional infliction of emotional distress under the Child Victims Act, which extended New York's statute of limitations for suits related to child sexual abuse. Joining Rapp in the suit against Spacey was a man who requested to remain anonymous who accused Spacey of sexually abusing him in 1983, when he was 14 and Spacey was 24. On June 17, 2021, the anonymous accuser was dismissed from the case due to his refusal to publicly identify himself. As Rapp's trial lawsuit against Spacey commenced in October 2022, it was revealed Rapp had given an inaccurate description of the apartment where he alleged the abuse took place. On October 17, the judge dismissed the emotional-distress charges as a "duplicate" of the battery charges. On October 20, a jury found Spacey not liable of all charges, with the court further ordering Rapp to pay Spacey $39,089 in damages.
In 2020, Spacey and his production companies M. Profitt Productions and Trigger Street Productions were ordered to pay $31 million to MRC, the studio that produced House of Cards, for violating its sexual harassment policy. Spacey appealed to have the arbitration award overturned, but the request was denied on August 4, 2022.
On May 26, 2022, Spacey was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the United Kingdom with four counts of sexual assault against three complainants. The alleged offenses occurred between 2005 and 2013 in London and Gloucestershire. According to the Crown Prosecution Service, it would be possible to formally charge Spacey only if he entered England or Wales either voluntarily or through an extradition request. Nevertheless, in a statement to Good Morning America on May 31, 2022, Spacey said he would "voluntarily appear in the U.K. as soon as can be arranged."
In his first British court appearance, on June 16, Spacey denied the allegations against him. On July 14, he pleaded not guilty to the charges in London. On November 16, the CPS authorized an additional seven charges against Spacey, all related to a single complainant arising from incidents alleged to have occurred between 2001 and 2004. Three charges were dismissed before or during the trial, which began on June 28, 2023, and, on July 26, 2023, a jury found Spacey not guilty of the remaining nine charges.55
Domestic Violence
The crime of Battery Against Cohabitating Person is defined in section 273.5 of the California Penal Code.
(a) Any person who willfully inflicts corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition upon a victim described in subdivision (b) is guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years, or in a county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of up to six thousand dollars ($6,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment.
(b) Subdivision (a) shall apply if the victim is or was one or more of the following:
(1) The offender’s spouse or former spouse.
(2) The offender’s cohabitant or former cohabitant.
(3) The offender’s fiancé or fiancée, or someone with whom the offender has, or previously had, an engagement or dating relationship, as defined in paragraph (10) of subdivision (f) of Section 243.
(4) The mother or father of the offender’s child.
A Story of Domestic Violence
I was abused by my ex-partner, who is also my children’s father, for ten and a half years. I had four children with him - Angela, Rosalie, Mike, and Jackson. I was beat all throughout my first pregnancy, and as a result my girl Angela was born a month early. She did not develop properly and was born with her heart on the right side of her body. She was a Mother’s Day baby, born on May 13, 1973, at 5 lbs. 11 ounces. I named her Angela Michelle because she looked just like an angel. She only lived to the age of 16 and died on January 17, 1990, in Prince George. It is for her and in her memory that I tell this story.
You might be wondering why I stayed in a violent relationship for that long? I grew up without a dad and was often called a ‘bastard’. I was always taunted with sayings such as: “Do you even know who your dad is?” It hurt a lot to be bullied and I did not want my own children to go through the same experience. So, I silently suffered the abuse. At the time I did not realize that it was equally bad, if not worse, for my children to witness the violence of their father beating up their own mother.
I tell this story for the women who are still in abusive relationships so that they will have the courage to get out. Anyone who controls you and physically and emotionally hurts you does not love you. We have to understand that violence against women is always unacceptable, and as Native women, we are five times more likely than other women to die as the result of violence. I became an alcoholic while I was in the relationship. The alcohol would numb the pain of being beaten; it would numb me for when he got home in the evenings so I could tolerate all the kicks and punches; it would numb me against his false accusations of me cheating on him when he was the one cheating on me with other women.
As a result of my drinking, the Ministry of Child and Family Development (MCFD) became involved in my children’s lives. I had several visits from MCFD over the years and they told me to stop drinking and to get counseling, but I could not stop drinking. They also told me to leave my ex-partner, but I had nowhere to go. For years, MCFD kept apprehending my children. Sometimes they would take my children away for a few weeks; sometimes it was for a few months.
Then in December 1981, in a surprise visit, MCFD workers came to my home. I was not home, but my children’s father was supposed to be home. However, he had left them alone in the house and the upstairs neighbor called MCFD. MCFD apprehended my children, this time seeking a permanent order. That meant that my young children, ages 1-5, were going to essentially be kidnapped from me forever.
I broke down and started drinking even more heavily. I felt that if I did not have my children, then I had nothing to live for and would rather drink myself to death. One night in March 1982 I drank so much that I felt my heart was going to stop. That night I decided that I did not actually want to die an alcoholic and that I had to fight for my children. I quit drinking cold turkey. I went for alcohol counseling at the Native Court workers Society and also enrolled at Native Education Society to get my GED. I finally left my partner. After a few months I was able to get 2-hour supervised visits with my children every 6-8 weeks, but only after I appealed the decision by MCFD to deny me visits entirely.
After I won my right to supervised visits, I decided to appeal MCFD’s decision to apprehend my children permanently. I did not even know that I could appeal this decision until I was informed by an advocate at Native Court workers that I could. I realized that MCFD had not informed me of my basic legal rights as a parent and did not actually care to fulfill their responsibility and mandate to keep families together. I felt that as a survivor of violence and as a Native woman, I was being re-victimized by being labeled as a bad mother who was unable to protect her children.
After four years of fighting in the Court system, I finally won my case, and my children were given back to me in 1986. Throughout the four years, I often felt like giving up, but I knew I had to fight for my family. The MCFD social worker reported to the Court that I was ‘not showing love and affection’ to my children. But the Court-ordered psychologist determined that there was lots of affection between us and said that it was clear that my children wanted to come back home. I thank Dr. Diane Mitchell for helping me win my case by recommending that my children be returned. It is frustrating though that we have to rely on these professionals to validate us.
The whole system of child apprehension is grossly unfair and unjust. From my experience and those of other women I know, it seems that the Ministry is interested in keeping children in the foster system rather than returning them to their parents. Most of the children in MCFD’s custody are Native children. In BC, Native children are 6.3 times more likely to be removed from their homes than non-Native children. I believe this is both a continuation of the residential school experience - where children are torn away from their families and communities are destroyed - as well as a consequence of residential schools, which has forced Native families into social dysfunction with rampant alcohol/drug use and abuse in the home. I feel like the odds are stacked against us, but still, we continue on.
I am now 29 years sober and my three beautiful children – Rosalie and Michael and Jackson – are parents themselves. Once I had my children back, I told my boys to never hit a woman because it is like hitting your mother. I still live with the guilt about what happened to my deceased daughter Angela. I also felt responsible when my other daughter Rosalie was in an abusive relationship worse than mine. I felt that she thought it was okay to be abused because she watched me take it. But now my daughter Rosalie is happy and has a beautiful 8-year-old daughter named Kayla. My son Michael is 31 years old and has been clean from heroin for several years now. He is working and has a 2-year-old daughter named Tayla. My youngest son Jackson is 30 years old and recently graduated from the Academy of Learning. He has a wonderful 10-month baby girl named Gianna. I am so proud of my children and thank the Creator for every new day. Love to all my family and friends.56
Domestic Battery
The crime of domestic battery is defined in section 243 (e) (1) of the California Penal Code. (e) (1) When a battery is committed against a spouse, a person with whom the defendant is cohabiting, a person who is the parent of the defendant’s child, former spouse, fiancé, or fiancée, or a person with whom the defendant currently has, or has previously had, a dating or engagement relationship, the battery is punishable by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of not more than one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. If probation is granted, or the execution or imposition of the sentence is suspended, it shall be a condition thereof that the defendant participate in, for no less than one year, and successfully complete, a batterer’s treatment program, as described in Section 1203.097, or if none is available, another appropriate counseling program designated by the court.57
52University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing (2015)
53California Penal Code (2024)
54George Cartwright (2024)
55Wikipedia
56DTES Power Group (2011)
57California Penal Code (2024)