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[alburt]

According to Maryland law second degree assault is touching someone without their permission. The penalty for this is up to 5 years in jail. Are you kidding me!? That's not even a dictionary deffinition of assault, let alone a legal one and certainly not a criminal act. The old deffinition was a willful attack on another person causing them more than minor injury. The victim used to have to be seriously injured for it to be a second degree assault charge. To make things worse, now there has to be an arrest made in all domestic violence cases. So if a couple are in an argument and one of them accidently gives the other a very minor injury, they can be arrested for second degree assault. To make things even worse the state will not allow the victim to drop the charges even if they want to and the victim can only be a witness for the state. This is absolutely rediculous and should be changed. Is there any way to get these rediculous laws changed to something that makes sense?

[iden]

All states have similar laws.
Touching someone in an insulting manner or to place them in fear on the public way is just one definition of aggravated battery in my state. That is a felony, up to 7 years and $5,000 fine.

One of the reason law enforcement officers have discretion.
They can, and usually do, ignore such a crime and ask for different charges or nothing or if the bad guy is a guy they cannot get for a murder they know he did they can try to charge him.

You contact your state legislatures and members of th law committee and propose changes in the laws.
They change the laws often, before computers most cops had to subscribe to a updating service.
I doubt they will even think of changing this one since it is a pretty basic law on the books in all 50 states and most civilized countries.

Uh lady cath, congress does not make such laws. It is the state legislatures that do that. basic civics

[pannoowau]

You seem to be asking if statutes can be changed. You noted what the statute used to say, and what is says now. So, it was changed. So, they can be changed. If you want to propose an amendment to a statute, contact your representative in the state legislature. However, offensive unwanted physical contact is a pretty standard definition for a battery.

[dacy17]

You seem to be asking if statutes can be changed. You noted what the statute used to say, and what is says now. So, it was changed. So, they can be changed. If you want to propose an amendment to a statute, contact your representative in the state legislature. However, offensive unwanted physical contact is a pretty standard definition for a battery.

I've never had an argument with a wife or girlfriend where somebody "accidentally" got injured, even a minor injury. That's disgraceful that you try and make that claim.

If you would like to change a law in Maryland, contact your representatives in the state legislature.

[gervaso81]

you would have to lobby congress..

the reason the victim is not allowed to drop the charges is because a lot of abused women have done that and they don't want it to keep happening..

[wakeley58]

Yes, there is a way to get it changed: Contact your state legislator and convince him/her to sponsor a bill to change the definition.

[celeste]

That's not correct. Who told you that's how it works? Your friends? Over-eager teacher? Cop who did not have time to give a whole explanation?

The law on Assault in the Second degree in Maryland is written down in the state's criminal code, and it is nothing like what the definition you gave. For the record, the max sentence is 10 years, not 5, so I would question the person who told you this. The statute § 3-203 simply reads "A person may not commit an assault." §3–201, a separate law, defines:
“Assault” means the crimes of assault, battery, and assault and battery, which retain their judicially determined meanings.

Assault is not simply touching, in fact, touching is not needed. All it takes is a person to be "in reasonable fear of bodily harm." If you take an axe and run up to someone screaming, then stop at the last second and say "Just kidding," it counts as assault if that person had no idea you were kidding and really though they were about to get their head split open. For touching to be 2nd degree assault (more correctly, "battery"), it not only has to be without consent, it has to be deliberate and contain some element of menace. Like bumping someone on the subway is not assault. It's not intentional and is not aggressive. Purposely shoving someone is deliberate and is socially construed as threatening.

Lastly, whoever told you the part about domestic violence is exaggerating. Police DO NOT have to make an arrest just for a domestic dispute call up. They make an arrest if they reasonably believe an assault occurred within the conditions provided above. In other words, if someone is injured and it is truly an accident, no arrest is made. It is true they don't let you drop charges, BUT if the victim convinces the prosecutor that the other person did not hit them, before the trial, they charge can be dropped. Married people can invoked "spousal privilege" to refuse to testify, though in Maryland they can only do it once. These laws are in place to protect people with "Battered Person Syndrome," where they are delusional and try to protect their partner who is a violent, abusive person.