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Under early common law mayhem was limited to injuries affecting limbs or members of the body that were used for fighting. The usage could be either assault or defensive; the theory behind the crime was that it was an offense which deprived the King of the aid and assistance of his subjects, in times of critical need. Lord Coke, an English nobleman and legal scholar of the 17th century stated, "for the members of every man are under the safeguard and protection of the law, to the end a man may serve his King and country when called."
Developing the Crime's Definition
By early common law, severing or injuring the nose, lip or ear did not constitute disablement. However as the result of an early English statute, disfigurement as well as disablement came to be included in the definition of mayhem.
Both common law and statutory law require that the disablement or disfigurement be permanent. In some jurisdictions, there must be specific intent to disable or disfigure in order for the crime to constitute mayhem. Malicious or reckless conduct resulting in these injuries is not sufficient.
While the common definition of the crime assumes that some member of the victim's body has been severed, the offense is also committed when the member of the victim's body remains intact but is so injured as to be rendered virtually or completely useless.
With regard to this variation, the statutory definition of mayhem has been expanded to include conduct that deprives a person of the use of one of his body's members, or in some fashion disables, disfigures or otherwise renders it useless. Specific acts that are found in statutory prohibition include the slitting of a nose, an ear or a lip. Common law adds to this list of particulars harm to the arm, hand, finger, leg or foot. Castration has always been regarded as mayhem: statutory law has included the protection of female private parts.
In a growing number of contemporary jurisdictions, mayhem has been eliminated as a stand-alone offense and included in the definitions of other crimes such as assault and battery, usually as aggravating circumstances. In New York today, a person is guilty of assault in the first degree - a serious felony - if "With intent to disfigure another person seriously and permanently or to destroy, amputate or disable permanently a member or organ of his body, he causes such injury to such person or a third person."
Malicious assault that involves injury with intent to cause permanent harm, whether to a person's functionality or appearance, has been incorporated into a panoply of felonious criminal prohibitions. Simple assault, assault with intent, and all manner of injurious physical acts can be found carefully defined in today's criminal statutes.
There are some jurisdictions, however, that maintain mayhem as a separate offense. California's statute typifies the remaining prohibitions: "Every person who unlawfully and maliciously deprives a human being of a member of his body. Or disables, disfigures, or renders it useless, or cuts or disables the tongue, or puts out an eye, or slits the nose, ear, or lip is guilty of mayhem."
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