Assault, Asylums, and Accounting

39-13-101. Assault. —
(a) A person commits assault who:
(1) Intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury to another;
(2) Intentionally or knowingly causes another to reasonably fear imminent bodily injury; or
(3) Intentionally or knowingly causes physical contact with another and a reasonable person would regard the contact as extremely offensive or provocative.

(b) (1) Assault is a Class A misdemeanor unless the offense is committed under subdivision (a)(3), in which event assault is a Class B misdemeanor.
(2) In addition to any other punishment that may be imposed for a violation of this section, if the relationship between the defendant and the victim of the assault is such that the victim is a victim as defined in § 36-3-601(8), and if, as determined by the court, the defendant possesses the ability to pay a fine in an amount not in excess of two hundred dollars ($200), then the court shall impose a fine at the level of the defendant's ability to pay, but not in excess of two hundred dollars ($200). The additional fine shall be paid to the clerk of the court imposing sentence, who shall transfer it to the state treasurer, who shall credit the fine to the general fund. All fines so credited to the general fund shall be subject to appropriation by the general assembly for the exclusive purpose of funding family violence shelters and shelter services. Such appropriation shall be in addition to any amount appropriated pursuant to § 67-4-411.
[Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 1; 1990, ch. 1030, § 11; 2002, ch. 649, § 1.]
39-13-503. Rape. —
(a) Rape is unlawful sexual penetration of a victim by the defendant or of the defendant by a victim accompanied by any of the following circumstances:
(1) Force or coercion is used to accomplish the act;
(2) The sexual penetration is accomplished without the consent of the victim and the defendant knows or has reason to know at the time of the penetration that the victim did not consent;
(3) The defendant knows or has reason to know that the victim is mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless; or
(4) The sexual penetration is accomplished by fraud.
(b) Rape is a Class B felony.
[Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 1; 1995, ch. 484, § 1; 1997, ch. 406, § 1; 2005, ch. 353, § 11.]


The similarities between these two examples of a misdemeanor and a felony in the state of Tennessee compared to those provided in Introduction to Criminal Justice (Siegel, 2008) are that they both define assault and rape in the same way. Really, the only differences here are that these two Tennessee statutes provide more of an in depth explanation of assault and rape as it applies to the state of Tennessee.
Tennessee uses the A.L.I. (American Law Institute) standard as a test for insanity defenses. The A.L.I. standard was introduced in 1962 as an alternative to the M’Naughten standard. To be eligible to use this defense, the defendant must be found to have a mental defect that causes him/her to lack the ability to realize that his/her action were illegal, and also lack the capacity to understand and follow the law. If the jury decides to accept this defense, the defendant will receive a verdict of Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity. The defendant will then enter into court-mandated treatment, instead of receiving jail time. For more information, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/history.html#ali

The state of Tennessee reported to the 2007 IC3, a total of 3,147 complaints. There is a list of the top ten complaints categories from Tennessee. Auction fraud at 36.6%, non delivery of merchandise/payment at 24.3%, credit card fraud at 8.5%, confidence fraud at 6.2%, check fraud at 6.1%, computer fraud at 3.3 %, identity theft at 3.2 %, financial institutions fraud at 3.1%, Nigerian letter fraud at 2.9% and threats at 1.5%. The percent of referrals by monetary loss starts at $00.01-$99.99 at 18.7%, $100.00-%999.99 at 39.9%, $1,000-$4,999.99 at 31.0%, $5,000.00-$9,999.99 at 6.9% and over $10,000 at 3.6%. The top dollar loss complaint was Nigerian letter fraud and totaled $170,127.00 and reported losses throughout the state were more than $3.4 million. The amount lost by fraud for individuals reporting monetary loss were, auction fraud with 99.6% who reported a loss with a median loss per complaint of $512.00, Non delivery with 98.7% who reported a loss with a median loss per complaint of $400.00, Credit card fraud with 98.5% who reported a loss with a median loss per complaint of $358.66, Confidence fraud with 94.7% who reported a loss with a median loss per complaint of $1,100.00, Check fraud with 98.9% who reported a loss with a median loss per complaint of $2,975.00, Computer fraud with 16.0% who reported a loss with a median loss per complaint of $500.00, Identity Theft with 71.4% who reported a loss with a median loss per complaint of $800.00, Financial Institutions fraud with 97.9% who reported a loss with a median loss per complaint of $1,500.00, Nigerian letter fraud with 97.8% who reported a loss with a median loss per complaint of $2,400.00 threats with 13.0% who reported a loss with a median loss per complaint of $3,00.00. The total median dollar loss for all complaints reporting a dollar loss amounted to $606.18. The Tennessee perpetrator characteristics are 74.9% male and 24.1% female. The perpetrator statistics in the United States reports per 100,000 population Tennessee ranks 36th highest at 17.25 at the same time as ranking 21st on total number of perpetrators identified as residing in Tennessee. The total accounts for 1.4% of all complaints where the perpetrator was identified. The Tennessee complaint characteristics were 52.0% male and 48.0% female. The complaint demographics were stated as under 20 at 2.4% with amount lost per referred complaint of $222.00, 20-29 at 19.5% with amount lost per referred complaint of $605.94, 30-39 at 24.5% with amount lost per referred complaint of $655.34, 40-49 at 24.6% with amount lost per referred complaint of $651.74, 50-59 at 19.5% with amount lost per referred complaint of $619.00 and over 60 at 9.5% with amount lost per referred complaint of $650.00. The complaint statistics in the United States reports per 100,000, Tennessee ranks 31st highest at 51.11 while also ranking 20th on total number of complaints identified as residing in Tennessee. This total accounts for only 1.8% of all complaints in the United States. The complaint-perpetrator dynamics were reported as Tennessee at 8.7%, California being the highest at 12.2%, Florida at 10.3% and New York at 9.5%.

Michie's Legal Resources: Tennessee Code. (2009).
Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Michie's Legal Resources:
http://www.michie.com/tennessee

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/history.html#ali

http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2007/Tennessee%202007%20Report.pdf

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