Assault and battery (Illinois)

Assault is an attempt or threat to inflict bodily harm upon another person. When an injury is actually inflicted, it is known as battery. Illinois statute defined assault and battery as “the unlawful beating of another” and gave justices of the peace “jurisdiction of all cases of assaults, and of assault and battery, and affrays.” The Nauvoo city charter gave the mayor and aldermen “all the powers of Justices of the Peace therein, both in civil and criminal cases.”