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and Fighting...

Fighting and violence can also happen in relationships; at home, in the family, or with your boyfriend or girlfriend. This is usually called ‘domestic violence’. This type of violence can be hard for people to walk away from because it is happening in a family or with a person they love.

This section tells you about what the law says about these types of fighting and violence and what the police can do to deal with the behaviour. It tells you what can happen if someone is charged with breaking the law for fighting or being violent. It also gives you some information if you have been a victim of any form of violence.

The law has names for different types of violent or intimidating behaviour. The same behaviour can be a more serious crime depending upon who it involves and where or when it happens. Click on a topic to find out more about the different offences at law for fighting and violence and what they mean.

Assault

Assault is behaviour that makes someone feel that they are about to be physically hurt. It is more than words – it means that someone does something that makes you think that person is going to hurt you.

For example, picking up a stick and raising it to strike, or coming towards you with hands up to punch, or pointing an unloaded gun at you if you don’t know it is unloaded. It doesn’t matter whether the person or what they are holding actually strikes or touches you. It is about how their behaviour makes you feel. Someone who convicted of an assault can go to prison for 2 years .

If the charge is dealt with at the Local Court before a magistrate, the magistrate can impose a fine of up to $2,200 or a term of imprisonment of up to 12 months or both.

Assault occasioning actual bodily harm:

“Assault occasioning actual bodily harm” is an assault that includes behaviour such as hitting, kicking, or pushing someone over, where the person who is assaulted is physically injured by that behaviour. A person who is convicted of this type of assault can be sentenced to go to prison for 5 years, or 7 years if they were with someone else or in a group of people at the time .

If the charge is dealt with by a Local Court before a magistrate, the magistrate can impose a maximum fine of up to $5,500 or a term of imprisonment of 2 years or both.

Where someone is seriously injured:

The law has different terms for offences where a person is seriously injured by someone who is violent towards them. Serious injuries include:

• ‘wounding’ someone (in other words, inflicts an injury that breaks the skin, like hitting with broken glass) and
• ‘grievous bodily harm’ which includes any really serious injury, including permanent or serious disfigurement (like scarring or badly broken nose).

Deliberately causing serious injury:

Under the law, if a court finds that a person intentionally – in other words, doing something on purpose - wounds or causes grievous bodily harm to a person, he or she can be sentenced to go to prison for up to 25 years .

Recklessly causing serious injury:

If a person acted ‘recklessly’ in causing serious injury, (in other words, where a person knew there was a risk of hurting someone by an act but did it anyway), then even if the person didn’t actually mean to hurt someone, the person who did it can be in very serious trouble.

• A person convicted of recklessly wounding can be sentenced a term of imprisonment of up to 7 years;
• A person convicted of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm can be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of up to 10 years .

The sentences can be even longer if the person was with another person or a group of people when it happened.

Special circumstances that make assault more serious

• Assault against police officers and other law enforcement officers

When police officers and other law enforcement officers are on duty, it is important that they can do their job without being hurt or threatened. There are very serious consequences for assaulting police officers who are on duty.

Anyone who throws anything at a police officer, or assaults, stalks, harasses or intimidates a police officer on duty, can be sentenced to go to prison for 5 years, even if the police officer is not physically hurt .

Anyone who hurts a ‘law enforcement officer’, which includes officers at correctional centres and detention centres, can go to prison for up to 7 years, and if the officer is seriously hurt or wounded, the sentence can be higher: up to 12 years.

Assaults at school

• School is a place which should be safe for kids and school staff at all times.
• Anyone who assaults, stalks, harasses or intimidates a student or person who works at a school, while they are at school, can go to prison for 5 years.
• If a student or staff member, is assaulted and actually hurt, the person can go to prison for 7 years.

There are even more serious consequences if a person ‘recklessly’ does something that causes serious injury. ‘Recklessly’ means knowing there is a risk of harm and doing it anyway. A person who recklessly wounds a student or staff member, or badly hurts them (called ‘grievious bodily harm’) can go to prison for up to 12 years.

Public Disturbance

If there is a riot or other large scale public disorder, the penalties for assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm can be even higher.

What the police will do:

If the police are called to a fight, the police will firstly break up the fight and make sure that everyone is safe and that no-one has been hurt. If the police are called early enough, they can help to calm a situation before anyone is hurt and before people do things that can get them into more trouble. The police will talk to the people involved and to people who have seen what has happened.

What the police will do then depends upon what has happened and how old the people are. If no-one is hurt, and depending upon what has happened, the police might give the people involved a warning and ask them to move on, particularly if the people involved are young or if there is no significant history of getting into trouble. If there has been an assault, or any violence, or if anyone has been injured, the person who did it may be charged and required to go to court.

Young people who are under 18 may be treated differently:

Domestic Violence

Domestic violence can be many things including physically hurting you, making you scared, threatening to hurt you, but it is not right and you do not have to put up with it. You deserve a relationship and family life which is free from fear and violence.

Some people don’t realize that the relationship they live with every day is an abusive one. Reach Out has a fact sheet about domestic violence which tells you more about the different forms it can take.


There are some people who don’t know or don’t care that this sort of violence has no place in a family or a relationship. If you are in a relationship with someone like that, or have a family member who gets violent or threatens you, the police are here to help you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The NSW Police Force is committed to helping people get away from domestic violence and stopping the offencers of it. Read our link here for more information about it and what we can do to help, click here.

If you think someone is going to hurt you, you can always ring 000 for the police to come and help you.

Managing Anger

Things often happen in life that can make us feel angry: relationship breakups, jealousy, losing a job, stress and many other things. It is a normal human emotion. The important thing is how you deal with those feelings. Expressing anger in a violent way is against the law.

If you or someone you know has trouble dealing with feeling angry, then there are places that can help.

The Mental Health Association Inc NSW has a fact sheet on anger and a list of contacts.

ReachOut! has a useful fact sheet with tips on how to manage anger for young people.