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Well, there are two major defense types; a negative defense, and an affirmative defense. Before I get into the details, I'd like to make a brief distinction. A person can be charged with criminal assault, usually called "assault and battery." If the police arrest you for hitting somebody, this would be criminal assault.

The second type of assault is the civil action (or tort) assault. Civil assault is defined as "creating an immediate apprehension of offensive contact." This is a little bit more tricky, For assault in the tort context, you don't need to actually be hit, you just need to think you are going to be hit. Its kind of like somebody throws a punch at you, you think you are going to be hit, but you Dodge it or he misses you. Even if the punch misses, you can still sue the person for assault. As a general rule, if the police are not involved, it is a civil, not criminal case.

Now, down to your real question, sorry for the detour.

A negative defense would be you saying, "I didn't hit him."

An affirmative defense would be like you saying, "Yes, I hit him BUT,

1- We were in fight club. (The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club. If you haven't seen the movie, see it.)

2 - We were in a boxing match.

3 - I was defending myself, he hit me first and he was going to hit me again. (This is a tricky one. If somebody hits you and then runs away, you DO NOT have legal authority to chase him down and hit him. You can only defend yourself on the 1st punch or if the other person is still swinging.)

4 - I was defending somebody else -

5 - I was defending my property - If somebody is breaking into your home, you are legally allowed in most states to use reasonable force to prevent a robbery. This does not mean that you can shoot trespassers. I repeat, do not shoot trespassers, or even robbers. You are only allowed to use deadly force if you have a reasonable good faith belief that your life is in danger.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it does include the main defenses. Keep in mind that this posting does not constitute legal advice. If you have more in depth questions, or if you are being charged with a crime or sued for assault, contact a lawyer immediately.

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