Assault and battery. Any unlawful touching of another which is without justification or excuse. It is both a tort, Trogun v. Fruchtman, 58 Wis.2d 569, 207 N.W.2d 297, as well as a crime, Scruggs v. State, Ind.App., 317 N.E.2d 807, 809. The two crimes differ from each other in that battery requires physical contact of some sort (bodily injury or offensive touching), whereas assault is committed without physical contact. In most jurisdictions, statutes have created aggravated assaults and batteries, punishable as felonies, and worded in various ways. See Battery.

SOURCE: Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition