As civilians, it’s our duty to abide by the rules of society and present ourselves are responsible citizens. Human beings even though are capable of greatest kindness and love, the flip side is that we are equally capable being extremely ruthless and devoid of all emotions. This is where the status-quo in society breaks and people start to conduct heinous acts. However, society has a way of dealing with these cracks by imposing a legal system. The law is what keeps people in place makes them think twice before engaging in any sort of unlawful act by hurting anyone. Laws keep civilians in check by ensuring that the status-quo in the society in maintained. In spite of all this, time and again, people break these laws by engaging in crimes.
Now, crimes can be of many kinds and there’s a type of punishment allotted towards each kind. These punishments are of varying degrees depending on the type of crime. Petty crimes like small-scale stealing or street fights might not lead to serious punishments, but violent crimes can lead to someone getting convicted of a felony. For general misdemeanors, one can get away with it by just paying fines, performing community services, jail time of under a year, etc. But what happens when it’s something more morbid and violent? In this regard, it’s important to understand what felony is.
Felonies are types of crimes that are extremely serious and violent in nature. Individuals engaging in such acts of crimes are dealt with severity and they face serious charges under the federal law. Felonies can be the following but not limited to:
- Murder
- Armed robbery and theft of a considerable amount of money
- Rape or any kind of sexual assault
- Arson or the act of setting fire to any property
- Physical assault leading to severe harm to someone
These kinds of crimes attract punishments that are harsher including several years in the prison along with restitution whenever applicable. It should also be noted that there are times when just jail time isn’t enough – in such cases, there can be a death penalty as a result of a felony conviction.
There are serious misconceptions about different kinds of crimes and a lot of the times we tend to look at everything as felony. This isn’t right and as a society it is our duty to understand the differences and know what the different categories of crimes are. Crimes can be of various kinds – from infractions to misdemeanors to felonies.
Let’s look at how we define these different kinds of crimes and what these punishment kind is for each of these unlawful acts.
Infractions
Infractions are basically general violations of laws that many civilians get convicted of. While there’s no serious conviction in these kinds of crimes, it does not mean that an individual can come out of them without any repercussions. In layman’s terms, infractions are petty offenses that can be done away with some fine.
For example: If someone was caught speeding, they will get issued a speeding ticker but nothing harsher than this. Along with this, the individual will not get any jail time for these kinds of offenses. The same is applicable for something like jaywalking. The tickets that the government introduces as a result of infractions is just limited to a fine and at the most a negative mark on the person’s driving record. It should also be noted that while, for infractions, a convict can a hire attorney, the government doesn’t have an obligation to hire one.
Misdemeanors
Misdemeanors are more serious offenses that lead to imprisonment for up to a year. A lot of states have the rule of keeping a convict imprisoned for as long as year. This is done to avoid deportation consequences. It should also be noted that the punishment for misdemeanors isn’t just restricted to about a year of jail time. The punishment can also be a good amount of fine, restitution, probation, community services, etc. Misdemeanors need to go through a jury trial, and if for some reason, the individual doesn’t have someone to represent them under the court of law, the government is obliged to do so by finding them a legal representative. If someone is convicted of a serious assault, there can be a fine of $1000 on that individual and a maximum jail time of 6 months. This shouldn’t be mistaken for a felony as it’s just a regular crime.
Felonies
Felonies are acts of crimes are far more brutal, harsh, and heinous. Felonies involve the serious threatening and causing serious harm to a person. These kinds of crimes cannot be done away with just a fine and attract long-term imprisonment or sometimes even death penalties. However, the crimes are not restricted to just physical/sexual assault, robbery, or murders. They have found their way into more serious in other areas like white collar crimes or fraud schemes, etc. Those convicted of a felony do not necessarily have to serve the same kind of punishments – they can serve imprisonment of a minimum one year or for lifelong with no parole or as serious as death penalty. Now let’s look at a few examples of felonies.
If an individual is seen in the possession of a deadly weapon and tried to injure the victim, they will be identified as a felon as they intended to cause the other person serious harm. This is simply because the government sees this individual as a potential criminal as they did intended to cause harm to the other person.
Another the situation can be around something many people have done in the past. Some people have this habit of shoplifting. However, shoplifting will get deemed as a felony only when a person shoplifted worth a certain amount and if the individual had prior shoplifting cases associated with their names.
So, being responsible citizens, it’s our duty to be true to ourselves by not engaging in a vicious circle of all kinds of crimes.
Leave a Reply