What you need to know about the level of assault in Georgia
Assaults can take different forms in Georgia and dealing with assaults is always difficult. Here’s everything you need to know about Georgia’s assault levels.
Georgian law does not specify specific numerical degrees of attacks. Bodily harm may refer to assault or assault, which are separate criminal offences. Assault is the threat or risk of violence while battery is the act of physical violence.
Types of Attacks in Georgia: Easy and Hard
Georgian laws provide for two different types of attacks. A simple attack is an attempt to violently injure someone or to place them in a situation where violent injury is reasonably likely.
For example, if a person issues a death threat to someone, possesses the ability to carry out the threat, and is reasonably expected to act on the threat, the person commits simple assault.
Simple assault is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $1,000.
See also: Attack vs. Heavy Attack: The Difference
The penalty for a basic attack becomes worse under the following conditions:
- If the attack was committed on public transport or at a public transport stop.
- If the attack was domestic (against a household or family member).
- If the victim was over 65 years old.
- If the victim was a pregnant woman.
- Or if the victim was an employee of the public school system and the attack occurred on school campus or while the victim was performing school duties.
If any of the above circumstances apply, then a simple battery becomes a serious and serious administrative offense. The penalty is up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
In domestic violence, family member or household member refers to a violence between spouses, ex-spouses, parents of the same child, parents and children, stepparents and stepchildren, foster parents and foster children, and people who live or have lived in the same household. Siblings are excluded.
Georgian law considers aggravated assault as assault aimed at robbing, raping or murdering. A serious attack can also include attacking someone with a dangerous weapon or firing a firearm from a vehicle while an attack is being committed.
Aggravated assault is a crime punishable by imprisonment from 1 to 20 years.
Serious bodily harm is aggravated in these circumstances:
- Assaulting a police officer or correctional officer at work: 5-20 years in prison.
- Victim is over 65: 3-20 years in prison.
- Domestic assault: 3-20 years in prison.
- Domestic assault on public transport or at a public transport stop: 3-20 years in prison.
- Assault with intent to rape a child under 14: 25-50 years in prison.
- The victim is a student or school staff member and the perpetrator fired a gun in the school security zone: 5-20 years in prison.
- Assault in a commercial vehicle robbery: 5 to 20 years in prison and a $50,000 to $200,000 fine.
Types of batteries in Georgia: simple and complicated
Georgian criminal law also identifies two types of batteries. Simple battery means intentionally harming someone or touching them in an offensive or provocative way. For example, if a person hits someone in the face, the person has committed a simple battery.
Simple battery is an administrative offense. A misdemeanor conviction carries a sentence of up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $1,000.
To set a simple battery of high and difficult nature:
- The victim is over 65 years old or a pregnant woman.
- The battery occurred on public transport or at a public transport stop.
- The victim is a police officer, police dog, or correctional officer on duty.
- The battery is domestic.
- Battery is committed by a care facility nurse against a facility resident.
- The victim is a sports official who directs amateur sports.
- The victim is a public school employee engaged in work duties or on school property.
Georgia’s simple battery of high and aggravated nature faces a fine of up to $5,000 and up to a year in prison.
Aggravated assault means intentionally harming someone by removing a limb, disabling a limb, or seriously disfiguring the limb. An aggravated battery can be broken bones, bad wounds, a coma, or something that changes physical appearance like a broken nose.
Georgian law considers aggravated assault to be a crime carrying a prison sentence of 1 to 20 years.
See also: Aggravated Assault in Georgia: Penalties and Defense
Here are the battery’s aggravating circumstances along with the penalties:
- If the battery was on duty against a police officer or correctional officer: 10-20 years.
- If the victim was over 65 years old: 5-20 years.
- If it is a household battery: 3-20 years.
- If the battery was on public transport or at a public transport stop: 5-20 years.
- If the battery was aimed at a student or school employee in a school safe zone: 5-20 years.
Georgia courts may increase penalties for assault or convictions for assault if the offender already has one or more felony convictions or the offender had an additional motivation behind the crime, such as B. Bias, prejudice or hatred.
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If you or a loved one would like to learn more about Degrees of Assault Georgia, get your free consultation with one of our Georgia women’s rights attorneys today!
