Mayhem Law and Legal Definition
Mayhem is the crime of maliciously injuring a person's body, especially to impair or destroy the victim's capacity for self-defense. Modern statutes usually treat this as a form of forced battery or serious bodily injury under injury.
In short, it is the act of unlawfully and violently depriving another of the use of such of his members as may render him less able in fighting either to protect himself or irritate his opponent; and therefore the cutting or disabling, or weakening a man's hand or finger, or striking out his eye or fore tooth, or depriving him of those parts the loss of which abates his courage, are held to be mayhems. But cutting off the ear or nose or the like are not held to be mayhems at common law.
