The FBI’s incident reporting system groups the four types of crimes against persons into homicide, assault, kidnapping and abduction, and sex offenses.1Federal Bureau of Investigation. NIBRS Crimes Against Persons, Property, and Society What ties them together is the target: a person’s body, safety, or life, rather than property or public order. What separates them from each other is the kind of harm inflicted and the offender’s state of mind. Those distinctions drive the charge, and they drive the sentence.
Homicide
Homicide is the killing of one person by another. Not every homicide is criminal. Killings in genuine self-defense, lawful military action, or state-authorized execution are generally treated as justifiable. Criminal homicide splits into murder and manslaughter, and the line between them is the killer’s mental state at the moment of the act.
Murder
Under federal law, murder is the unlawful killing of a person with malice aforethought: either a deliberate intent to kill or a reckless indifference to human life so extreme it amounts to the same thing.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1111 – Murder Most jurisdictions divide murder into two degrees.
First-degree murder is a premeditated, deliberate killing. It also includes killings committed during certain dangerous felonies such as arson, kidnapping, robbery, burglary, or sexual assault, even if the defendant did not specifically intend anyone to die. Under the felony murder rule, everyone involved in the underlying crime can face a murder charge if someone dies during its commission.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1111 – Murder First-degree murder almost always carries life imprisonment, and in federal cases a death sentence remains a legal possibility.
Second-degree murder covers any other murder: intentional killings that happened in the moment without planning, or deaths caused by conduct so reckless it showed complete disregard for human life.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1111 – Murder
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of another person without malice. Federal law recognizes two kinds. Voluntary manslaughter happens during a sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion. The killing is intentional, but legally adequate provocation drops it below murder. Federal voluntary manslaughter carries up to 15 years. Involuntary manslaughter is an unintentional killing caused by criminal negligence or by committing a minor unlawful act carelessly enough that death results. A fatal crash caused by texting behind the wheel is a familiar example. The federal maximum is 8 years.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1112 – Manslaughter
Some states also recognize negligent homicide, which involves a lower level of fault. Involuntary manslaughter requires recklessness; negligent homicide requires only that the defendant should have been aware their conduct created a substantial risk of death.
Assault and Battery
Assault and battery often get lumped together, and many states have merged them into one offense. Legally, they describe different conduct. Assault is the intentional act of making someone reasonably believe they are about to be harmed. No physical contact is required. Raising a fist in a threatening way or lunging toward someone can qualify. Battery is actual harmful or offensive physical contact without consent. Even minimal contact counts if it is unwanted. Pushing someone or spitting on them both qualify.
Simple assault and battery are usually misdemeanors. Under the federal assault statute, simple assault carries up to six months in prison, or up to one year if the victim is under 16. Penalties climb sharply with aggravating factors. Assault with a dangerous weapon and intent to cause bodily harm carries up to 10 years. Assault resulting in serious bodily injury also carries up to 10 years. Assault with intent to commit murder or sexual abuse carries up to 20 years.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 113 – Assaults Within Maritime and Territorial Jurisdiction
Federal law singles out domestic violence. Strangling or suffocating a spouse, intimate partner, or dating partner carries up to 10 years, and assault causing substantial bodily injury to those victims or to a child under 16 carries up to 5 years.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 113 – Assaults Within Maritime and Territorial Jurisdiction State penalties vary widely, but almost every jurisdiction treats the use of a weapon, the severity of the victim’s injuries, and the victim’s vulnerability as factors that elevate the charge.
Kidnapping and Abduction
Kidnapping is the unlawful restraint or removal of a person through force, threats, or deception, with intent to hold them against their will. The crime typically requires either moving the victim a substantial distance or confining them for a significant period in an isolated location. The purpose can range from ransom, to hostage-taking, to facilitating another crime.
A kidnapping becomes a federal case when the victim is transported across a state boundary, when the crime occurs on federal property or aboard an aircraft, or when the victim is a foreign official or federal employee. Federal law also creates a rebuttable presumption that the victim was moved across state lines if they are not released within 24 hours, which lets federal prosecutors step in on prolonged kidnappings even without direct evidence of interstate travel.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1201 – Kidnapping
Federal kidnapping carries any term of years up to life. If the victim dies, the penalty rises to life or death. Attempted kidnapping carries up to 20 years. When the victim is a child under 18 and the kidnapper is not a parent, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle, or legal guardian, the sentence must include at least 20 years.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1201 – Kidnapping
Abduction is a broader term that overlaps with kidnapping but can involve less force or different intent. The most common example is parental abduction, where a non-custodial parent takes or hides a child in violation of a custody order. Every state criminalizes this conduct under one name or another: custodial interference, child concealment, or parental kidnapping. Cases may be charged as misdemeanors or felonies depending on how far the child was taken, how long they were hidden, and whether the parent crossed state lines.
Sex Offenses
Sex offenses cover a range of crimes involving non-consensual sexual contact or acts. The common thread is the absence of meaningful consent. Under federal law, sexual abuse committed through threats or force carries any term of years up to life.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2242 – Sexual Abuse State penalties vary, but serious sexual offenses are almost universally felonies.
Consent is a voluntary agreement, through words or actions, to a specific sexual act. It can be withdrawn at any point, and once withdrawn, continuing the activity is a crime. Lack of consent can result from physical force, threats, or intimidation. It also exists when a person is incapacitated and cannot understand what is happening or communicate unwillingness, whether from unconsciousness, sleep, or impairment by drugs or alcohol.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2242 – Sexual Abuse
Every state sets an age below which a person is legally incapable of consenting, regardless of circumstances. These thresholds range from 16 to 18 across most of the country. Sexual contact with someone below that age is commonly called statutory rape, and the defendant’s belief that the minor was older is typically not a defense.
A conviction for a sexual offense also triggers registration under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Offenders must register in every jurisdiction where they live, work, or attend school, with in-person appearances scaling by severity: annually for 15 years at Tier I, every six months for 25 years at Tier II, and every three months for life at Tier III, which covers the most serious offenses and sexual contact offenses against children under 13.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 34 USC 20911 – Relevant Definitions Failing to register or update information is itself a federal crime.
Hate Crime Enhancements
Any of these four categories can carry significantly steeper penalties when the offense was motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. Under 18 U.S.C. ยง 249, willfully causing bodily injury based on one of those characteristics carries up to 10 years in federal prison. If the attack involves kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse, an attempt to kill, or if the victim dies, the sentence rises to any term of years or life. Conspiracy to commit a hate crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury carries up to 30 years.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 249 – Hate Crime Acts These enhancements sit on top of whatever the underlying offense already carries.
Defenses That Reduce or Eliminate Liability
A charge is not a conviction. Several defenses can reduce or eliminate criminal liability for a crime against a person, though each has strict requirements.
Self-defense is the most frequently raised justification. To succeed, the defendant generally must show they reasonably believed force was necessary to protect against an imminent threat of unlawful harm, the force used was proportional to the danger, and they were not the one who started the confrontation. Many states expand this through stand-your-ground laws, which remove any duty to retreat before using force. Others still require retreat when it can be done safely before deadly force is used.
Insanity is an affirmative defense. Under federal law, the defendant must prove by clear and convincing evidence that a severe mental disease or defect left them unable to understand the nature of their actions or recognize that those actions were wrong at the time of the offense.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 17 – Insanity Defense The bar is high, and the defense rarely succeeds. A defendant found not guilty by reason of insanity is typically committed to a mental health facility, sometimes for longer than the prison sentence would have been.
Duress applies when someone commits a crime only because they were threatened with immediate, serious harm and had no reasonable alternative. Necessity is similar but involves choosing the lesser of two evils during an emergency, like breaking into a building to escape a wildfire. Neither defense is available for murder in most jurisdictions.
How Long Prosecutors Have to File Charges
Not every crime can be prosecuted indefinitely. Statutes of limitations set the deadlines, and for the most serious crimes against persons, those deadlines are generous or nonexistent.
Under federal law, capital offenses such as murder have no statute of limitations at all. An indictment can be brought at any time.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3281 – Capital Offenses For non-capital federal offenses, the default is five years from the date of the offense, though many specific crimes carry longer windows.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3282 – Offenses Not Capital Sexual offenses involving minors often have extended or eliminated limitations periods under both federal and state law.
State rules vary. Most states have no limitations period for murder. For felony assault, kidnapping, and sexual offenses, the window is longer than for misdemeanors, and many states pause the clock while a suspect is outside the jurisdiction. For misdemeanor battery, the deadline usually falls between one and five years. Reporting a crime late can make prosecution harder even when the statutory clock has not run out.