This bug is briefly mentioned once or twice in the forums already, but I'd like to add some more in-depth information for the devs.

If you attack non-hostile wild animals (ex. deer, elk or rabbits), an assault is added to the "Crimes" subsection of the game menu. The issue occurs if you attack the animal with ranged weapons, magic, melee weapons and unarmed strikes, while sneaking or in a normal state. Issue reproduces 100% of the time.

If the animal attacked is outside (in the main game world), Guards and other NPCs do not react as if a crime has been committed. If the animal attacked is in a town, then guards react as if an assault has occurred. Guard AI appears to be working correctly, but it looks like the assault logic from in-town animals was accidentally carried over to wild animals.

My main concern is that the game appears to base a lot of NPC interactions on tracked stats. For example, if you get crafting skills high enough, you'll hear guards and other NPCs comment about how they would like you to make them some X. Even though such assaults don't appear to trigger a true "crime committed" response, does racking up dozens, if not hundreds of tracked assaults influence ambient, scripted or quest NPC dialogue? This could be a huge issue, effectively breaking non-criminal stealth / hunter - style play.

If anyone else has more info to share, or has seen this issue as well, please add what you have.

Probably-Irrelevant-Data-Dump:
Platform: PC
OS: Win7 64
Build/Version #: 1.2 patch

NOTES:

It looks like there is no Actor Value governing these stats, so we cant use player.setav to modify them.

A friend tells me this issue may also affect hostile NPCs. Apparently, attacking open-world enemy NPCs before they're aware of you may also track as an assault.

I'm currently halo testing the issue, I'll post here if I figure anything out.

Reply if you've seen this issue, as well.

UPDATE: Hitting a follower does not appear to add an assault to the crime statistic.

That was also in Oblivion. Apparently getting the jump on the enemy or wild animals is a crime.

In-town animals are domesticated and belong to someone, which is why it's a crime to kill them. You can tell the difference because they don't flee when you approach them.