Assault, Aggravated

Abstract

Aggravated assault is a form of interpersonal violence that involves either serious injury to the victim or the threat of force by means of a weapon. It is defined in various ways by state statutes and criminal justice agencies, but is usually distinguished from simple assault by the degree of injury to the victim and the seriousness of the threat. Nationwide information on aggravated assault is provided by two primary sources of information: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and the Bureau of justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). In the UCR, aggravated assault is an unlawful attack with the intent of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. The definition also adds that the attack is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by other methods intended to produce death or great bodily harm. Therefore, aggravated assault, as a class of crime, stands between simple assault and homicide, depending on the amount of physical injury to the victim and the means by which the attack was carried out.