The U.S. criminal justice system is basically the organization of offenders according to their crimes and subsequent punishments. While this is the general definition of the legal structure that makes up this country, within its limits of regulation is a wide range of specifics, variables, and legal processes that are necessarily a part of law and order in crime processing. One of the most central of these legal variables that comprises the U.S. criminal justice system is the topic of criminal offenses. In this category, we examine how crimes relate to the larger picture of the criminal legal system, and the classification of criminal offenses in which crime and punishment is organized by.
Crimes in the U.S. criminal justice system are organized according to the severity of offense, i.e. a crime against property would be most often considered less serious than a crime against a person. Severity of offense is organized into three basic crime classifications: felonies, misdemeanors, and infractions. Felonies are the most serious of crime classifications, and are typically punishable by fines and incarceration of more than one year’s prison term. Common examples of felony crimes are: murder, arson, rape, burglary, kidnapping, terrorism, arson, and treason. Misdemeanors are less serious than felony crimes, and offer penalties that are typically less than one year’s jail time and/or fines. Common examples of misdemeanor crimes are: petty theft, public intoxication, prostitution, simple assault, and minor drug possession. Infractions are the newest classification of crime, and denotes petty or minor crimes that are less serious in nature than misdemeanors. Typical examples of infractions are violations of minor traffic laws, such as speeding or a parking ticket.
All crimes of all classifications are considered more egregious depending on a variety of factors, such as whether or not there existed malicious intent to commit the crime and inflict harm; the vulnerability of the victim involved, i.e. children, elderly, etc; how much harm was caused as a result of the offense, and if the defendant had an offender history, as well as the nature of said offender history. All of these factors are typically taken into account when felonies and misdemeanors are further specified into more detailed classification. Felonies have approximately 9 classes of crimes, while misdemeanors have 3. Infractions denote such minor crimes that no classification is afforded them.
While there is a basic structure to the classification of criminal offenses according to federal law, each state jurisdiction is given the liberty to specify how each classification of crime should be named, as well as how severely or mildly certain crimes and offenders should be punished. Some states consider certain crimes more serious in nature than others, while others approach the same crimes with more lenient punishment. Some states classify certain crimes as felonies while others classify them as gross misdemeanors. Some states punish convicted offenders of certain crimes to the full extent of the federal regulation in place, while others punish defendants of the same crimes the bare minimum of federal regulation. How a defendant is processed according to law and order in this country is directly affected by how the state in which the crime was committed approaches particular crimes.
Sources:
http://criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/criminal-overview/criminal-offenses.html