Criminal procedures are safeguards against the indiscriminate use of criminal laws and the cruel treatment of alleged criminals. In detail, they are designed to impose the constitutional rights of criminal the defendants, starting with initial police contact and continuing through arrest, trial, investigation, sentencing, and appeals. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the difference between a misdemeanor and felony, speedy trial for misdemeanors and felonies, and the Speedy Trial Act of 1974. Difference in Misdemeanor and Felony According to Attonery.com both a misdemeanor and felonies are criminal charges however with one big difference, a misdemeanor you are in a local or county jail and a felony you are in a state or federal prison.
Misdemeanors
Misdemeanors offenses are punishable by substantial fines and sometimes jail time, usually less than one year. Any jail term would most likely be served in a county jail, rather than a state or federal correctional institution. Minor crimes consisting of offenses such as petty theft, which is the theft of items with little worth, normally a person can 't be arrested for a misdemeanor unless the crime was committed in front of the officer. Petty offense misdemeanors are usually held in a shortened trial, where defendants do not have the right to court-appointed lawyers if they can 't afford one. Jury trials can be available, depending upon the type of misdemeanor alleged. Misdemeanors are classified according to their
While a misdemeanor may be less serious than a felony, it is still serious and you can still be punished with incarceration and a monetary fine. Worse, once convicted of a misdemeanor, it goes on your record and can negatively impact your life in many ways. Not
Misdemeanors – example prostitution, these are liable to a greater amount of fine or a short jail time.
A felony is a violent crime, it is considered to be more serious than a misdemeanor. When committing a felony it would be punishable to more than a year in prison. Felonies tend to be crimes such as assault, theft, and indecent exposure, depending on how many times committed.
Misdemeanors also have limits on when they can be prosecuted. Here are some; prostitution, pimping and pandering must be prosecuted within two years, possession of up to two ounces is two years, theft of property of a value of less than $50 is two years as well as other misdemeanors. Some exceptions to these statutes are if the DNA gathered shows no match for the victim of a sexual assault case, in this said case there would be no limit. The limitation is
Myths are stories telling a part of the world view of a society or give an explanation of a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. It is a popular viewpoint, embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society. Although myths are regarded as fictional representations, they often reveal underlying ideals. Myths often tell us more about our social and cultural values than they do about any particular circumstance. While myths seem to explain events, often times they instruct us on integrating an event an individual’s belief system and worldviews. The phrase crime myths does not stray too far from these definitions. These types of myths are usually created in nonscientific forums through the telling of sensational stories. These crime fictions often take on new meanings as they are told and retold, eventually evolving into truth for many people (Kappeler and Potter, 2005). The commonly held belief of the United States’ leniency within the criminal justice system is a crime myth, unfounded, and false.
Most time people don’t think about what crimes they are committing like motor vehicle theft, larceny and theft and robbery. Each of the crimes is serious, but some people don’t understand the consequence of what they could be up against. Automobile theft is a felony which you could face up to one or more years in prison. Robbery is a crime that happens every day and usually deals with someone intentionally taking something from a store or a person.
The criminal justice system in the United States has traditionally operated under two fundamentally different theories. One theory is the Crime Control Model. This theory is characterized by the idea that criminals should be aggressively pursued and crimes aggressively punished. The other theory is the Due Process Model. This theory is characterized by the idea that the rights of the accused need to be carefully protected in any criminal justice investigation. (Levy, 1999)
In the United States, the criminal justice system is a combination of laws and institutions. Laws are to be enforced in order for society to work appropriately as a whole. The many institutions of the criminal justice system include law enforcement, juvenile and adult courts, and correctional facilities. It is a unique system that has developed a specific process to serve justice. It is however, a process that is not without its faults. In order to protect and serve the many different faces of society, the process is structured to ensure the justice system continues to flow in the proper direction. Throughout this paper, I will summarize all the steps between arrest, pre-trial, trial, and appeals. I will explain the contingencies for each stage
sentencing is more than six months. When someone is arrested for a crime, the court
In every state, crimes are put into distinct categories. The categories are usually "felony," "misdemeanor," and "infraction." Decisions on crime classification are made by state legislators; the determination focuses on the seriousness of the crime.
However, the polarity of the two models is not absolute. Although it would be possible to construct models that exist in an institutional vacuum, it would not serve our purposes to do so. We are postulating, not a criminal process that operates in any kind of society at all, but rather one that operates within the framework of contemporary American society. This leaves plenty of room for polarization, but it does require the observance of some limits. A model of the criminal process that left out of account relatively stable and enduring features of the American legal system would not have much relevance to our central inquiry. For convenience, these elements of stability and continuity can be roughly equated with minimal agreed limits expressed in the Constitution of the United States and, more importantly, with unarticulated assumptions that can be perceived to underlie those limits. Of course, it is true that the Constitution is constantly appealed to by proponents and opponents of many measures that affect the criminal process. And only the naive would deny that there are few conclusive positions that can be reached by appeal to the Constitution. Yet there are assumptions about the criminal process that are widely shared and that may be viewed as common ground for the operation of any model of the criminal process. Our first task is to clarify these assumptions.
Crime is defined as any behavior that is punishable by a fine, a prison or jail sentence or in some cases both. There are two types of crime. The first type is a felony; the standard definition of a felony is any crime that is punishable by more than one year in prison or by death. The most common felonies are murder, robbery, treason, rape and kidnapping. The second type of crime is known as a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor is usually a less serious crime and is generally punishable by a fine and/ or incarceration in a county jail for up to one year. The most common misdemeanor crimes
There are several different categories in which certain crimes are placed to classify them. They are categorized on the intensity of the actions committed, for example if it involves the injury of a fellow citizen at fault of the one who committed the action. The crime range from the simplest of Class C, B, and A Misdemeanor, State Jail Felony, Third- Degree felony, second-degree felony first degree felony, and the most severe capital punishment.
The American Criminal Justice System have various ways to classify and punish individuals who violate the laws. Depending on the crime committed, someone could spend anywhere from a small amount of time to a great deal of time away from society. The punishment is based on where the wrongdoing committed is classified as a crime of moral turpitude, a misdemeanor or felony and if the violation of the law is considered a violent or non-parole offense.
Crimes are frequently classified according to their seriousness as felonies or misdemeanors. Generally, felonies are more serious than misdemeanors. Under the federal criminal law system, felonies are crimes for which the punishment is death or imprisonment for more than a year. A misdemeanor is punishable by a fine or by imprisonment for less than a year. In most states persons convicted of felonies are sent to state prisons, while those guilty of misdemeanors serve their sentence in city, or county jails, or correction houses.