According to the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics, violent crimes include assault, robbery, rape and sexual assault, and murder.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation categorizes violent crimes by whether or not force or the threat of force was involved in the crime.
In one year, they estimated that over 1.
2 million violent crimes were committed in the U.
S.
Within this number, 62.
5 percent was aggravated assault, 29.
5 percent was robbery, 6.
8 perfect was forcible rape, and 1.
2 percent was murder.
In 67 percent of the murder cases and 41.
4 percent of robberies, a firearm was involved in the crime.
Assault involves threatening another person with violence.
If these threats materialize, the offense turns into aggravated assault.
An attack on a person which has the intent of inflicting severe injury could be charged as aggravated assault.
It often includes the use of a deadly weapon, whether it be actually displaying the knife or firearm or threatening to use it.
This is categorized as a violent crime because of the high threat of bodily harm it involves.
Kidnapping or statutory rape could also fall under the category of aggravated assault as can reckless driving or vehicular manslaughter.
As a typical example, the Texas Penal Code § 22.
02 defines the crime as causing serious bodily injury to another individual or uses a deadly weapon during an assault.
It can either be charged as a first or second degree felony, depending on the circumstances.
Robbery is another violent crime that is defined as taking a personal belonging from another by force.
The difference between this offense and other types of theft is the use of physical force or intimidation in order to steal something.
Again, as a typical example, Texas law defines robbery as any person who intends to steal something while knowingly or intentionally causing serious bodily harm to the victim.
It can also include knowingly threatening them with injury or death.
This crime is categorized as a second degree felony, but if any harm actually does take place or a deadly weapon was involved, it could be convicted as a first degree felony.
Forcible rape is defined as forcing someone to commit a sexual act against their will.
This could range from statutory rape to assault with the attempt to rape and more.
It was estimated that 54.
2 per 100,000 of females in the U.
S.
were victims of forcible rape in 2010.
Lastly, murder is the willful killing of another human being.
In 2010, almost 15,000 people were murdered.
It is not counted as murder if it was the killing of a felon by a peace officer in the line of duty as well as the killing of a felon by a citizen during a felony.
If you are facing a conviction of a violent crime, you should contact a criminal defense attorney as soon as possible.
They could be able to get your charges reduced or even dropped.