united-states legal-terms definition
Have there been any efforts to standardize the definitions of &quot;Attempted Aggravated Assault&quot; and &quot;Attempted Murder&quot;?
<p>As far as I know, the key difference between &quot;Attempt Aggravated Assault&quot; and &quot;Attempted Murder&quot; is whether or not the prosecution can prove that the perpetrator intended to kill someone.</p>
<p>However, the requirement for proving intent has led to a lot of inconsistency in how these types of violent crimes are classified in practice.</p>
<p>Has there been any effort in any legal system to standardize the difference between attempted assault and attempted murder? For example, by creating a specific category for attempted violent crimes, perhaps calling it a &quot;violent attempt at harm&quot;?</p>

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<p>The <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_Penal_Code" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Model Penal Code</a> (by the American Law Institute) is a standardized code that individual states can draw from. Many states' criminal law is based at least in part on this code.</p>
<p>The MPC provides definitions for aggravated assault, murder, and attempts.</p>
<p>In general, crimes do not fit into a neat taxonomy structure with more severe ones being strict subsets of less severe or less specific ones. Sometimes, the definitions, or the manner in which offences are charged in a particular circumstance, will create such a relationship, but this is not inherent in the structure of the code.</p>
<p>Other statutes do define umbrella terms that might be relevant to what you're thinking of. For example the Armed Career Criminal Act provides for sentencing enhancements after numerous convictions for &quot;<strong>violent felonies</strong>.&quot; That term has been interpreted several times by the United States Supreme Court to determine whether it captured specific state crimes.</p>
