Iowa Assault Laws: Simple vs Aggravated Assault and Penalties

Iowa does not have a crime called battery. Iowa Code 708.1 defines a single offense, assault, that covers both trying to cause pain, injury or offensive contact and trying to make someone fear that contact, and Iowa Code 708.2 grades it by intent and result: a plain assault is a simple misdemeanor, assault causing bodily injury is a serious misdemeanor, assault with intent to inflict serious injury or with a dangerous weapon is an aggravated misdemeanor, and assault causing serious injury is a class D felony. Separate sections cover domestic abuse assault (708.2A) and assaults on peace officers, health care providers and other listed occupations (708.3A). For other states, see our guide to assault and battery laws by state.

Information last verified on 2026-10-13. This article has not been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Jurisdiction scope: This article covers Iowa Code chapter 708 (assault, including 708.1 to 708.5), the definitions in 702.7 and 702.18, the domestic abuse definition in 236.2(2), the sentencing sections 902.8, 902.9, 902.13 and 903.1, and the civil filing periods in 614.1(2), 614.8 and 614.8A. It does not cover self-defense and justification (see Iowa self-defense laws), protective orders (see Iowa restraining order laws), sexual abuse offenses, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, federal assault crimes (see the assault and battery hub) or city ordinances.

Assault vs. battery in Iowa

Iowa does not split offenses into assault and battery. Chapter 708 contains no offense named battery; offensive physical contact is part of the assault definition itself. Iowa Code 708.1 provides:

"1. An assault as defined in this section is a general intent crime. 2. A person commits an assault when, without justification, the person does any of the following: a. Any act which is intended to cause pain or injury to, or which is intended to result in physical contact which will be insulting or offensive to another, coupled with the apparent ability to execute the act. b. Any act which is intended to place another in fear of immediate physical contact which will be painful, injurious, insulting, or offensive, coupled with the apparent ability to execute the act. c. Intentionally points any firearm toward another, or displays in a threatening manner any dangerous weapon toward another."

Paragraph d adds intentionally pointing "a laser emitting a visible light beam toward another person with the intent to cause pain or injury to another, or toward an aircraft," with exceptions for law enforcement officers performing official duties, health care professionals and others authorized to use lasers, and laser tag and similar games.

Three features stand out. First, the definition reaches threats (paragraph b) and contact (paragraph a) under the same name. Second, injury is not required for the base offense: an act intended to result in insulting or offensive contact, with the apparent ability to carry it out, qualifies. Third, the statute calls assault a general intent crime.

Two activities are excluded. Under 708.1(3), an act is not an assault when both people "are voluntary participants in a sport, social or other activity, not in itself criminal, and such act is a reasonably foreseeable incident of such sport or activity, and does not create an unreasonable risk of serious injury or breach of the peace." It is also not an assault when a school district or accredited nonpublic school employee (or area education agency staff member) intervenes in a fight, physical struggle or other disruptive situation, "if the degree and the force of the intervention is reasonably necessary to restore order and to protect the safety of those assembled."

Iowa assault charges and penalties at a glance

The ranges come from Iowa's general sentencing sections. Iowa Code 903.1(1) sets a simple misdemeanor fine of "at least one hundred five dollars but not to exceed eight hundred fifty-five dollars," with imprisonment "not to exceed thirty days in lieu of a fine or in addition to a fine," and a serious misdemeanor fine of $430 to $2,560, plus imprisonment of up to one year at the court's option. For an aggravated misdemeanor with no specific penalty, 903.1(2) sets a maximum of two years and a fine of $855 to $8,540. Under 902.9(1), a class C felon who is not an habitual offender "shall be confined for no more than ten years" with a fine of $1,370 to $13,660, and a class D felon who is not an habitual offender shall be confined for no more than five years with a fine of $1,025 to $10,245. Prison terms in these sections are statutory maximums, not predictions of a sentence in a particular case.

These are the ranges for the offense itself; Iowa Code 902.8 and 902.9 set a higher maximum and a mandatory minimum for habitual offenders. Under 902.8, an habitual offender is a person convicted of a class C or class D felony who has twice before been convicted of any felony in Iowa, another state or federal court. Since July 1, 2026 (2026 Iowa Acts, chapter 1177), for offenses committed on or after that date, an habitual offender faces up to 20 years under 902.9(1)(c), must serve a minimum of seven years, which earned time does not reduce, and cannot receive a deferred or suspended sentence under 907.3.

When is assault a felony in Iowa?

Most Iowa assaults are misdemeanors of one of three grades. An assault becomes a felony in these situations:

• Serious injury without intent (708.2(5)): "A person who commits an assault, as defined in section 708.1, without the intent to inflict serious injury, but who causes serious injury, is guilty of a class 'D' felony."
• Dangerous weapon against a pregnant female (708.2(4)): a dangerous-weapon assault against a person the actor "knows or reasonably should know" is a pregnant female is a class D felony.
• Object penetration (708.2(6)): a class C felony.
• Protected victims and settings: assaults on the occupations listed in 708.3A (with injury, intent to inflict serious injury, or a weapon), inmate assaults involving bodily fluids (708.3B) and assaults against a person protected by a protective order (708.2E).
• Domestic abuse assault: a third or subsequent offense, a second offense after a first offense that was a class D felony (in listed cases), a strangulation assault causing bodily injury, or a weapon, serious-injury or strangulation assault against a person known or reasonably known to be pregnant (708.2A).
• Older individual assault (708.2D): a third or subsequent offense, or a strangulation assault on a person 60 or older that causes bodily injury.
• Hate crime assault (708.2C): with intent to inflict serious injury or with a dangerous weapon.
• Administering harmful substances (708.5): a class D felony.
• During a felony (708.3): a class C felony if the person "thereby causes serious injury to any person," and a class D felony "if no serious injury results."

Willful injury (708.4) is a related chapter 708 crime that does not depend on the assault definition: "Any person who does an act which is not justified and which is intended to cause serious injury to another commits willful injury," a class C felony if the person causes serious injury and a class D felony if the person causes bodily injury.

Serious injury and dangerous weapons

Two definitions in chapter 702 decide many grades:

• Serious injury (702.18): "a. Disabling mental illness. b. Bodily injury which does any of the following: (1) Creates a substantial risk of death. (2) Causes serious permanent disfigurement. (3) Causes protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ. c. Any injury to a child that requires surgical repair and necessitates the administration of general anesthesia." Subsection 2 adds that serious injury "includes but is not limited to skull fractures, rib fractures, and metaphyseal fractures of the long bones of children under the age of four years."
• Dangerous weapon (702.7): "any instrument or device designed primarily for use in inflicting death or injury upon a human being or animal, and which is capable of inflicting death upon a human being when used in the manner for which it was designed, except a bow and arrow when possessed and used for hunting or any other lawful purpose." The section adds that "any instrument or device of any sort whatsoever which is actually used in such a manner as to indicate that the defendant intends to inflict death or serious injury upon the other, and which, when so used, is capable of inflicting death upon a human being, is a dangerous weapon." It ends with a non-exhaustive list: "Dangerous weapons include but are not limited to any offensive weapon, pistol, revolver, or other firearm, dagger, razor, stiletto, switchblade knife, knife having a blade exceeding five inches in length, or any portable device or weapon directing an electric current, impulse, wave, or beam that produces a high-voltage pulse designed to immobilize a person."

Assaulting a police officer, health care provider or other listed occupation

Iowa Code 708.3A raises the grade of an assault against people in listed occupations. The section lists "a peace officer, jailer, correctional or juvenile detention staff, member or employee of the board of parole, health care provider, employee of the department of health and human services, employee of the department of inspections, appeals, and licensing who conducts investigations or inspections, employee of the department of revenue, national guard member engaged in national guard duty or state active duty, civilian employee of a law enforcement agency, civilian employee of a fire department, or fire fighter, whether paid or volunteer."

Each tier requires that the person commit the assault "with the knowledge that the person against whom the assault is committed is" one of those listed victims. The grade depends on intent and result:

• Class C felony (708.3A(1), (2)): with the intent to inflict a serious injury, or using or displaying a dangerous weapon in connection with the assault.
• Class D felony (708.3A(3)): causing bodily injury or mental illness.
• Aggravated misdemeanor (708.3A(4)): "Any other assault, as defined in section 708.1, including an assault causing another to come into contact with saliva by throwing, tossing, spitting, or expelling the fluid." A person convicted under this subsection "shall serve a minimum term of seven days of the sentence imposed by law, and shall not be eligible for suspension of the minimum sentence."

Health care providers. Under 708.3A(5)(d), a health care provider means an emergency medical care provider as defined in chapter 147A, or a person licensed or registered under chapter 148, 148C, 148D or 152 who is providing or attempting to provide emergency medical services, "or anyone who is working, volunteering, or participating in an educational course of instruction at a hospital or rural emergency hospital as defined in chapter 135B, or at a nursing facility as defined in chapter 135C." The knowledge requirement is eased in some settings: a person who assaults a health care provider "in a hospital, or at the scene or during out-of-hospital patient transportation in an ambulance, is presumed to know that the person against whom the assault is committed is a health care provider."

Inmates (708.3B). A person who, while confined in a jail or a Department of Corrections institution or facility, commits an assault on an employee that "results in the employee's contact with blood, seminal fluid, urine, saliva, or feces" commits a class D felony; the section lists other acts as well.

Older individuals (708.2D). An "older individual" is "an individual who is sixty years of age or older." On a first offense, older individual assault is a simple misdemeanor, a serious misdemeanor if it causes bodily injury or mental illness, and an aggravated misdemeanor if committed with intent to inflict a serious injury, with a dangerous weapon, or by knowingly impeding the older individual's normal breathing or blood circulation. A conviction under subsection 2 or 3 carries a minimum term of two days, served on consecutive days (708.2D(7)(a)). On a second offense, 708.2D(3) generally raises the grade one level (for example, a second simple-misdemeanor assault becomes a serious misdemeanor). A third or subsequent offense is a class D felony (708.2D(4)), as is a strangulation older individual assault that causes bodily injury (708.2D(5)). For a third or subsequent offense, the person is denied parole or work release until serving at least one year and cannot receive a suspended or deferred sentence or a deferred judgment (708.2D(7)(b)). Offenses more than 12 years before the charged violation do not count toward a second or subsequent offense (708.2D(6)(a)).

Domestic abuse assault in Iowa

Iowa grades assaults within certain relationships under a separate section, 708.2A. A "domestic abuse assault" is "an assault, as defined in section 708.1, which is domestic abuse as defined in section 236.2, subsection 2, paragraph 'a', 'b', 'c', or 'd'." Those four paragraphs of 236.2(2) cover assaults between family or household members who resided together at the time; separated spouses or persons divorced from each other and not residing together; parents of the same minor child; and persons who have been family or household members residing together within the past year and are not residing together at the time. Section 236.2(2) also has a paragraph (e) for persons in an intimate relationship, which 708.2A(1) does not list.

On a first offense, under 708.2A(2), domestic abuse assault is:

• a simple misdemeanor, except as otherwise provided;
• a serious misdemeanor if it causes bodily injury or mental illness;
• an aggravated misdemeanor if committed with intent to inflict a serious injury or with a dangerous weapon, or "by knowingly impeding the normal breathing or circulation of the blood of another by applying pressure to the throat or neck of the other person or by obstructing the nose or mouth of the other person"; and
• a class D felony if committed against a person "who is known to be, or reasonably should be known to be, pregnant" and involves a weapon, serious-injury intent or strangulation.

On a second offense, 708.2A(3) generally raises the grade one level: for example, a second assault that would otherwise be a simple misdemeanor, after a simple-misdemeanor first offense, is a serious misdemeanor, and it is a class D felony if the first offense was a class D felony and the second would otherwise be an aggravated misdemeanor. A third or subsequent offense is a class D felony (708.2A(4)); under 902.13, the court sets a minimum term, between one-fifth of the maximum term and the maximum term, that the person must serve before parole or work release. A strangulation domestic abuse assault "causing bodily injury" is a class D felony (708.2A(5)). Prior offenses count "regardless of whether it was committed upon the same victim," and deferred judgments count as previous offenses (708.2A(6)). A person convicted under subsection 2 or 3 "shall serve a minimum term of two days of the sentence imposed by law," on consecutive days, and "the court shall not impose a fine in lieu of the minimum sentence" (708.2A(7)(a)).

Protective orders. Under 708.2E, a person against whom a protective order has been issued who assaults a person protected by the same order, while the order is in effect, commits a class D felony, and the offense is "separate and distinct" from other offenses charged under chapter 708 or chapter 664A. For orders themselves, see Iowa restraining order laws.

Federal law, 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(9), separately makes it unlawful for a person convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence to possess a firearm or ammunition in or affecting commerce; the assault and battery hub explains that rule.

Hate crime assault

Iowa Code 708.2C grades an "assault in violation of individual rights" (an assault that is a hate crime): a class D felony with intent to inflict a serious injury or with a dangerous weapon, an aggravated misdemeanor if it causes bodily injury or mental illness, and otherwise a serious misdemeanor.

Recent changes and pending bills

• 2025 Iowa Acts, chapter 18 (S.F. 397), approved April 18, 2025: an act "relating to assaults, including assaults on persons engaged in certain occupations and inmate assaults on department of corrections employees," titled in the session laws as an offense against juvenile detention staff and certain investigators and inspectors.
• 2025 Iowa Acts, chapter 119 (H.F. 310), approved May 28, 2025: an act on assault offenses against health care providers; the current 708.3A(5)(d) definition quoted above reflects it.
• 2026 Iowa Acts, chapter 1035 (H.F. 2253), approved April 16, 2026, effective July 1, 2026: amended 708.2(4), the dangerous-weapon assault on a pregnant victim, to describe the victim as a "pregnant female" instead of a "pregnant person"; the grade (class D felony) did not change.
• 2026 Iowa Acts, chapter 1177 (H.F. 2542), approved June 2, 2026, effective July 1, 2026: set a seven-year mandatory minimum for habitual offenders that earned time does not reduce, raised their maximum from 15 to 20 years, and barred deferred or suspended sentences for them, for offenses committed on or after that date.
• House File 1036, approved May 15, 2026, effective July 1, 2026: lengthened the civil filing periods for minors and for sexual abuse or human trafficking of a minor (see the civil section below). The Act does not say that it revives a claim whose deadline had already passed before July 1, 2026.
• Pending, not law: House File 2751 passed the Iowa House 92-0 on April 6, 2026 and was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senate File 2400 passed the Iowa Senate 44-0 on March 3, 2026. Both bills address 708.3A, and neither was enacted in the 2026 session.

Civil lawsuits for assault in Iowa

A criminal assault case and a civil lawsuit for damages are separate. The state prosecutes the crime; a person who was hurt may bring a civil claim. Iowa Code 614.1(2) provides that actions "founded on injuries to the person or reputation, including injuries to relative rights, whether based on contract or tort, or for a statute penalty," must be brought "within two years." The subsection does not name assault or battery specifically. Other sections change the deadline in some cases. Since July 1, 2026 (House File 1036), Iowa Code 614.8(2) gives a person who was a minor when the claim arose five years after reaching majority to sue, and 614.8A extends the time to file an action related to sexual abuse or human trafficking that occurred when the injured person was a minor to five years after the person turns 18, plus five years from discovery of both the injury and its connection to the abuse when it is not discovered until adulthood. House File 1036 does not say that it revives a claim whose deadline had already passed before July 1, 2026. For other filing deadlines, see the Iowa statute of limitations guide.

Related legal issues

• Self-defense. Whether force was justified is a separate body of law; see Iowa self-defense laws.
• Protective orders. See Iowa restraining order laws.
• Clearing a record. Whether an assault conviction can be expunged is covered in Iowa expungement laws.

Related pages

• Assault and battery laws by state
• Iowa self-defense laws
• Iowa restraining order laws
• Iowa expungement laws
• Iowa statute of limitations
• Minnesota assault and battery laws
• Illinois assault and battery laws

This article provides general legal information about Iowa assault law, not legal advice. Laws change and their application depends on specific facts. For advice about a specific situation, contact a lawyer licensed in Iowa.

Last updated: 2026-10-13.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between assault and battery in Iowa?

Iowa has no criminal offense called battery. Iowa Code 708.1 defines assault to include acts intended to cause pain, injury or insulting or offensive physical contact as well as acts intended to place someone in fear of that contact, so conduct other states call battery is charged as assault.

Is simple assault a misdemeanor in Iowa?

Yes. An assault not covered by another subsection of 708.2 is a simple misdemeanor (708.2(7)), punishable by a fine of $105 to $855, and the court may order up to 30 days in jail in lieu of or in addition to the fine (903.1(1)(a)).

When is assault a felony in Iowa?

Assault causing serious injury without intent to inflict it is a class D felony (708.2(5)), and so is assault with a dangerous weapon against a person known or reasonably known to be a pregnant female (708.2(4)). Assaults on the occupations listed in 708.3A, inmate assaults involving bodily fluids (708.3B), assaults violating a protective order (708.2E), a third or subsequent domestic abuse or older individual assault, administering harmful substances (708.5), and assault while participating in a felony (708.3) are also felonies, and habitual-offender rules can raise the penalty.

What is the penalty for assault causing bodily injury in Iowa?

It is a serious misdemeanor under 708.2(2), with a fine of $430 to $2,560, and the court may also order up to one year in jail (903.1(1)(b)).

What happens if you assault a police officer in Iowa?

Assaulting a peace officer, knowing the person is a peace officer, is an aggravated misdemeanor with a 7-day minimum term under 708.3A(4). It is a class D felony if it causes bodily injury or mental illness and a class C felony (up to 10 years) if committed with intent to inflict serious injury or with a dangerous weapon.

Is assaulting a nurse or hospital worker a felony in Iowa?

Assaulting a health care provider as defined in 708.3A(5)(d), which includes anyone working at a hospital, rural emergency hospital or nursing facility, is a class D felony if it causes bodily injury or mental illness. The person must know the victim's status, but knowledge is presumed for an assault in a hospital or at the scene or during ambulance transport.

Is spitting on someone assault in Iowa?

Assault includes an act intended to result in insulting or offensive physical contact (708.1(2)(a)). For the occupations listed in 708.3A, the statute names causing contact with saliva by throwing, tossing, spitting or expelling it as an aggravated misdemeanor with a 7-day minimum.

Is choking a felony in Iowa?

A domestic abuse assault committed by knowingly impeding normal breathing or blood circulation is an aggravated misdemeanor on a first offense (708.2A(2)(d)) and a class D felony if it causes bodily injury (708.2A(5)). Older individual assault under 708.2D has a parallel strangulation provision.

How long do you have to sue for assault in Iowa?

Iowa Code 614.1(2) requires actions founded on injuries to the person or reputation to be brought generally within two years. The subsection does not name assault or battery specifically. Since July 1, 2026, a person injured as a minor has five years after reaching majority (614.8(2)), and an action related to sexual abuse or human trafficking of a minor may be filed up to five years after age 18 or within five years of discovery (614.8A). House File 1036 does not say that it revives a claim whose deadline had already passed before July 1, 2026.