Assault and Battery
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Assault and Battery
Result: Acquittal
Court: Criminal Court
Prosecution: Public Prosecutor's Office
Requested sentence: 2 years imprisonment for battery
ASSAULT AND BATTERY CRIME
Battery Lawyer
What is the crime of battery?
The crime of battery consists of having the intent to cause injury to another, impairing their physical or mental integrity, and causing the victim to need medical assistance and medical or surgical treatment.
Before discussing the characteristics of this crime further, it is essential to understand what the jurisprudence means by «injuries.»
What is meant by "injury" in the Penal Code?
An injury harms or negatively damages the victim’s health and integrity. The injury produces a disease, which can be cured or not, so the injury involves physical and psychological diseases.
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Requirements of the crime of battery
The requirements for a battery crime to be charged are the following:
The active subject must act with malice, that is, with intent to cause damage to the physical or mental health of the victim.
The victim will require medical assistance first: this is an indispensable requirement for considering bodily aggression a criminal offense.
The victim will require medical or surgical treatment: that is, he/she will need a planned treatment system or a medical scheme prescribed by a physician to cure an illness or reduce its consequences if it is not curable. Simple surveillance or optional monitoring of the course of the injury will not be considered medical treatment.
These are the requirements to be charged with this crime, although medical treatment is not necessary for minor injuries.
Crime of battery: Spanish Penal Code
Articles 147 to 156 of the Penal Code typify the crime of battery. It is a crime against the victim’s physical and psychological integrity, so the protected legal right is the health of people, both physical and mental.
Article 147 of the Penal Code: Crime of common injuries (primary type of crime).
Article 148 of the penal code: Aggravating circumstances of the crime of battery.
Article 149 of the penal code: Severe injuries.
Article 150 of the penal code: Serious injury with loss or disablement of an organ or deformity.
Article 151 of the penal code: Provocation, conspiracy, and proposition to commit battery crimes.
Article 152 of the penal code: Injuries by imprudence.
Article 153 of the penal code: Injuries in the context of domestic battery.
Article 154 of the penal code: Injuries from participation in tumultuous quarrel.
Articles 155 and 156: Injury with consent.
Simple Battery(Article 147 CP)
The crime of simple battery is punished with a prison sentence of three months to three years or a fine of six to twelve months.
Suppose the damage does not require medical treatment or surgical intervention. In that case, it will be considered a minor injury, and the perpetrator will be punished with a one- to three-month fine.
It is also considered a minor injury if the aggression does not cause injury to the victim. In this case, the penalty is a one—to two-month fine.
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Battery´s aggravating circumstances (Article 148 CP)
It is considered a crime of aggravated battery punishable by imprisonment of two to five years if any of the following circumstances concur:
If in the aggression, weapons, instruments, objects, means, means, methods or forms concretely dangerous for the life or health, physical or psychic, of the injured person have been used.
Weapons can be firearms, bladed weapons, hunting weapons, sporting weapons, weapons of war, weapons of artistic value, or defense weapons.
By instrument, jurisprudence understands any object capable of causing an injury: scissors, a pot, a plate, a hammer, etc.
An object is anything other than a weapon or instrument used to cause an injury, such as a stone, a piece of glass, or a book thrown very hard.
The means is a person’s action to cause damage, such as disabling the car’s brakes or electrifying the water.
If there is overkill or malice aforethought.
If the victim is under twelve years of age or a disabled person in need of special protection.
If the victim is or has been a wife or a woman who is or has been linked to the perpetrator by an analogous relationship of affectivity, even without cohabitation.
If the victim is a particularly vulnerable person who lives with the perpetrator.
Severe injuries (Article 149 PC)
Severe injuries occur when the result of the aggression is any of these injuries:
Loss or disablement of an organ, principal limb, or sense. For example, permanent incapacity to be able to close the hand completely, functional loss of a leg that requires the use of canes to walk, removal of the spleen or a kidney, partial loss of vision or hearing, etc.
Serious somatic or psychic illness.
Impotence or sterility. In this case, the impotence must be absolute.
Genital mutilation. Suppose the victim is a minor or disabled person in need of special protection. In that case, the judge may apply the special disqualification penalty for exercising parental authority, guardianship, conservatorship, guardianship, or foster care for four to 10 years.
Causing a severe deformity or aesthetic alteration in the ordinarily visible parts of the body. It is at the discretion of the judge, who will consider the injured party’s circumstances: age, sex, profession, and gender.
For these injuries, the penalty imposed will be six to twelve years of imprisonment.
Serious injury with loss or disability of an organ or deformity (Article 150 PC)
Serious injury occurs when the result of the aggression is the loss or disablement of a non-major organ, limb, or permanent disfigurement. It is punishable by imprisonment for three to six years.
Non-main limbs, such as the fingers of the hand or dental pieces, are considered to lack functional autonomy and only serve to facilitate the functioning of the main ones.
Provocation, conspiracy, and proposition to commit the crimes of battery (Article 151 CP)
Provocation, conspiracy, and proposition to commit the crimes foreseen in the previous articles will be punished with a penalty one or two degrees lower than the corresponding crime.
Injuries due to recklessness (Article 152 PC)
Recklessness-related injuries are the least known conduct. A distinction is made between severe and minor reckless injuries.
Serious reckless injury
Serious reckless injury occurs when the active subject disobeys or breaches the passive subject’s duty of care, indirectly causing damage to the latter.
Depending on the type of injury, the crime of gross negligence will be punished as follows:
With a prison sentence of three to six months or a fine of six to eighteen months for serious injuries.
Imprisonment from one to three years for severe injuries: loss or disablement of a major organ or limb, or a sense, impotence, sterility, severe deformity, serious bodily or mental illness, or genital mutilation.
With imprisonment from six months to two years for severe injuries with loss or disablement of a non-major organ or limb or deformity.
The crime of battery due to gross negligence may be aggravated in the following circumstances, being imposed in addition to the corresponding penalty, the following:
When motor vehicles or mopeds are used, the penalty of deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles from one to four years may be imposed.
When firearms are used, in which case the deprivation of the right to carry or possess firearms shall be imposed from one to four years.
Suppose the injury is caused by professional negligence. In that case, it is punishable by disqualification from office for six months to four years.
Slight reckless injury
The less serious imprudence, or slight imprudence, occurs when the injuries caused are not essential and the seriousness of the crime is minor. It is punishable by a fine of one to two months.
If any injuries referred to in articles 149 and 150 are caused, the offender will be punished with a three—to twelve-month fine.
Injuries in the context of domestic battery (Article 153 of the Criminal Code)
Article 153 of the Penal Code punishes the perpetrator of a crime of minor injuries (when he causes a psychological impairment or injury not constituting a crime or hits or mistreats without causing injury) within the family environment, with a prison sentence of six months to one year or community service of thirty-one to eighty days.
The aggravated subtype of this crime occurs when the crime of domestic violence is perpetrated in the presence of minors, or using weapons, or takes place in the standard home or the victim’s home, or is carried out in violation of a penalty contemplated in art. 48 CP or a precautionary or security measure of the exact nature. In such a case, the corresponding penalty shall be imposed in its upper half.
Injuries due to participation in a tumultuous quarrel (Article 154 PC)
This type of conduct represents a particular type of battery crime. It consists of quarrels between groups of people within a confused environment in which instruments or means are used to endanger the physical integrity of the persons or even their lives. It is punished with a prison sentence of three months to one year or a fine of six to twenty-four months.
Injuries with consent (Articles 155 and 156 PC)
There may be a case in which the victim consents to the injuries. In this case, the penalty will be lower by one or two degrees. Jurisprudence establishes that, to consider this consent, it must be valid, unrestricted, and express, and it cannot be dictated by a minor or a disabled person in need of special protection. That is to say, the victim must have previously issued the consent without external conditions.
This consent will not be valid when it is given using price or reward, obtained using violence, fraud, or intimidation, and given as a minor or disabled person. This exempts from criminal liability those who cause injury in organ transplants, sterilizations, and transsexual surgery, provided the law performs it.