Assault and Battery Against a Family or Household Member Law in Virginia

One of the crimes of “domestic violence” in Virginia is called “assault and battery against a family or household member.” Under Virginia Code § 18.2-57.2, any person who commits an assault and battery against a family or household member is guilty of at least a Class 1 misdemeanor.

An assault in Virginia is where the defendant:

1. Engages in an overt act,
2. With the intent to inflict bodily harm, and
3. Has the present ability to inflict such harm.

Alternatively, an assault can occur where the defendant engages in an overt act intended to place the victim in fear or apprehension of bodily harm and creates such reasonable fear or apprehension in the victim.

Battery is the willful or unlawful touching of another. The touching does not need to result in any injury and can include touching done in the spirit or rudeness or insult. Accidental touching is not a battery, as long as it was not done recklessly.

Who is a household or family member under Virginia's domestic violence laws?

The primary difference between assault or battery and assault or battery against a family or household member is that with the latter, the assault is against someone the defendant is related to, and/or lives with. A “family or household” member includes the person's

• (i) the person's spouse, whether or not he or she resides in the same home with the person,
• (ii) the person's former spouse, whether or not he or she resides in the same home with the person,
• (iii) the person's parents, stepparents, children, stepchildren, brothers, sisters, half-brothers, half-sisters, grandparents, and grandchildren, regardless of whether such persons reside in the same home with the person,
• (iv) the person's mother-in-law, father-in-law, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law who reside in the same home with the person,
• (v) any individual who has a child in common with the person, whether or not the person and that individual have been married or have resided together at any time, or
• (vi) any individual who cohabits or who, within the previous 12 months, cohabited with the person, and any children of either of them then residing in the same home with the person.