2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 16 - Crimes and Offenses › Chapter 3 - Offenses Against The Person › Section 16-3-600. Assault and battery; definitions; degrees of offenses.

(A) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Great bodily injury" means bodily injury which causes a substantial risk of death or which causes serious, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member or organ.
(2) "Moderate bodily injury" means physical injury that involves prolonged loss of consciousness, or that causes temporary or moderate disfigurement or temporary loss of the function of a bodily member or organ, or injury that requires medical treatment when the treatment requires the use of regional or general anesthesia or injury that results in a fracture or dislocation. Moderate bodily injury does not include one-time treatment and subsequent observation of scratches, cuts, abrasions, bruises, burns, splinters, or any other minor injuries that do not ordinarily require extensive medical care.
(3) "Private parts" means the genital area or buttocks of a male or female or the breasts of a female.
(B)(1) A person commits the offense of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature if the person unlawfully injures another person, and:
(a) great bodily injury to another person results; or
(b) the act is accomplished by means likely to produce death or great bodily injury.
(2) A person who violates this subsection is guilty of a felony, and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned for not more than twenty years.
(3) Assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature is a lesser-included offense of attempted murder, as defined in Section 16-3-29.
(C)(1) A person commits the offense of assault and battery in the first degree if the person unlawfully:
(a) injures another person, and the act:
(i) involves nonconsensual touching of the private parts of a person, either under or above clothing, with lewd and lascivious intent; or
(ii) occurred during the commission of a robbery, burglary, kidnapping, or theft; or
(b) offers or attempts to injure another person with the present ability to do so, and the act:
(i) is accomplished by means likely to produce death or great bodily injury; or
(ii) occurred during the commission of a robbery, burglary, kidnapping, or theft.
(2) A person who violates this subsection is guilty of a felony, and, upon conviction, must be imprisoned for not more than ten years.
(3) Assault and battery in the first degree is a lesser-included offense of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, as defined in subsection (B)(1), and attempted murder, as defined in Section 16-3-29.
(D)(1) A person commits the offense of assault and battery in the second degree if the person unlawfully injures another person, or offers or attempts to injure another person with the present ability to do so, and:
(a) moderate bodily injury to another person results or moderate bodily injury to another person could have resulted; or
(b) the act involves the nonconsensual touching of the private parts of a person, either under or above clothing.
(2) A person who violates this subsection is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than two thousand five hundred dollars, or imprisoned for not more than three years, or both.
(3) Assault and battery in the second degree is a lesser-included offense of assault and battery in the first degree, as defined in subsection (C)(1), assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, as defined in subsection (B)(1), and attempted murder, as defined in Section 16-3-29.
(E)(1) A person commits the offense of assault and battery in the third degree if the person unlawfully injures another person, or offers or attempts to injure another person with the present ability to do so.
(2) A person who violates this subsection is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned for not more than thirty days, or both.
(3) Assault and battery in the third degree is a lesser-included offense of assault and battery in the second degree, as defined in subsection (D)(1), assault and battery in the first degree, as defined in subsection (C)(1), assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, as defined in subsection (B)(1), and attempted murder, as defined in Section 16-3-29.
HISTORY: 2010 Act No. 273, Section 6.B, eff June 2, 2010; 2011 Act No. 39, Sections 1, 2, eff June 7, 2011; 2015 Act No. 58 (S.3), Pt II, Section 3, eff June 4, 2015.
Effect of Amendment
2015 Act No. 58, Section 3, rewrote (A)(2).