Is the difference between the most and least severe violent crimes subjective?
<p>An assault can be defined as anything which is perceived as injuring  or threatening. A kidnapping  is anything perceived  as limiting someones movement. Since an assault necessarily involves a limitation on movement, for example you move someone by punching them, aren't they the same? Is it just a matter of severity and discretion and aren't all violent crimes degrees of kidnapping?</p>

<p>If I were to try to reduce all "violent" crimes to just one thing, I would have tried to reduce them all to assault (the initiation of force, to different degrees). The fact that they have something in common does not mean they are indistinguishable.</p>

<p>There are situations where kidnapping does not include the elements of assault. You can trick a person into getting locked into a room, where there is no contact or threat of contact at all (assault is intentionally causing the reasonable apprehension of an immediate harmful or offensive contact). The rationale behind classifying offenses differently in terms of their consequences stems from a proportional-justice view of punishment (the punishment should fit the crime), therefore murder and shoving someone should not be treated identically. The specific distinctions made are somewhat political, but are fundamentally about the level of harm done to a person, i.e. the severity. But the procedure for encoding that judgment of severity into law is entirely political, precisely to <em>limit</em> discretion. The punishment for shoving is never execution nor life in prison, and the punishment for premeditated murder is hopefully never a $100 fine or 30 days.</p>

<p>I should point out that one does not "perceive" the legal nature of an act, one <em>concludes</em> based on definitions and evidence that an act satisfies a certain definition, or fails to satisfy that definition.</p>

<p>Your question seems to assume that all of the elements of both of the crimes you mention, assault and kidnapping, into a single element for each crime. Without going into great detail on all of the elements required to prove each offense, I'll just discuss the element of intent.</p>

<p>Criminal statutes generally require (especially in the types of cases you're describing) that the prosecution prove a general intent by a defendant to commit the act that constitures the offense charged, or a specific intent by a defendant to cause some specific result described in the statute. If the prosecuting attorney believes the defendant in your example intended to make harmful or offensive contact with the alleged victim, the prosecutor would charge the defendant with assault. At trial, the prosecutor would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intended to commit the act (e.g., a punch) that caused the harmful or offensive contact in order for the defendant to be found guilty.</p>

<p>In a kidnapping prosecution, the prosecutor be required at trial to prove the intent required by the jurisdiction's kidnapping statute beyond a reasonable doubt in order for the defendant to be found guilty. Many, if not most or even all, jurisdictions require that the prosecution prove specific intent (e.g., that defendant limited the alleged victim's movement, <strong>while also intending</strong> to hold that person for ransom, <strong>or</strong> to injure the person, <strong>or</strong> to commit sexual assault on the person, etc.) to prove kidnapping. The statute defining kidnapping in those jurisdictions specifically states that the defendant must intend one or more of those specific outcomes to commit kidnapping.</p>

<p>If the prosecutor thought the defendant intended both, she could charge the defendant with both crimes, and would have to prove the required intent for both charges (along with the other necessary elements of each charge) for the defendant to be found guilty of both charges.</p>

<p>So, it's not just the acts committed by a defendant that constitute a crime; the defendant's intent counts as well.</p>

criminal-law