The crime rate has been on the rise in the United States since 1999. All of these crimes are defined by a criminal law, which has been devised by lawmakers to prohibit people from committing harmful acts. According to the law, if someone is found engaging in any prohibited act, he must face a certain punishment. However, every criminal is given a chance to prove himself innocent in the court of law, and the judgment is only passed after he is found guilty of the crime accused. However, not all crimes are similar in the eye of the law. Different crimes have different punishments, and different procedures are followed to bring justice.

In every state in the US, a crime can be divided into certain categories. Most crimes fall under three distinct categories named as, “felony”, “misdemeanor”, and “infraction’.  To help you understand the difference between the three, let’s discuss them briefly.

Felony

The most serious type of crime a person can commit is termed as a felony. Felonies can often involve physical harm or an intent to cause physical harm to another person. For example, if a person is convicted of firing a gun on someone, whether or not he missed the target, he will be tried for a felony as his behavior was intended to bring harm to another person. Other offences may even include white collar crimes or fraud schemes which might disrupt a person’s mental health. A felony charge can result in imprisonment for a few years depending upon the nature of the crime, life imprisonment without parole, and even death in some cases. Moreover, if someone is charged with the same crime over and over again, such as shoplifting, the prosecutor might try him under a felony case.

Misdemeanor

They are criminal offenses that carry a punishment of over a year in most states. However, a person charged with a misdemeanor can also be charged with a fine, probation period, community service, and restitution. There is a whole court case which involves a jury, and a judge and indigent defendants are also provided with free representation so that they get justice.

Infractions

When classified, the least severe punishments are infractions as they are regarded as petty crimes, and they typically result in fines. As infractions don’t hold much of a criminal value, a jury isn’t called to save the taxpayer’s money. Infraction includes offences such as speeding tickets or wrong parking. The government is not responsible for appointing a lawyer for the accused but can hire one if he wishes.

7 Different Types of Crimes

The study of criminology is a very vast field. But, the most basic way to define it is an act that breaks the law set by the local state. If you are facing a criminal charge, the first thing you should do is appoint a lawyer that works out of your state so that he knows all the local rules and regulations. For example, if you have been charged with a crime in the Los Angeles area, you should go for someone like an Orange County Criminal Lawyer. Here are 7 types of crimes you should avoid at all cost.

·       Crimes against an individual

The most severe crime a person can commit is to hurt a fellow human being. Every state in America has a very strict rule when it comes to crime against a person. It can be anything from murder, aggravated assault, rape, robbery, etc. In short, if you try to rob someone of any of his basic rights, you are liable to severe punishment. When it comes to personal crimes, the situation in America is very unevenly distributed. These crimes are most often committed by young and poor people belonging from racial minorities.

·       Hate Crimes

Another vicious form of a crime is when a person abuses another person to hold prejudice against his race, gender, identity, religion, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. There has been a huge surge of hate crimes in American especially due to a lot of immigrants moving into the country. The natives think that these people are exploiting their rights and so they hold a personal grudge against them. The situation escalated after the election of the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, as most of his electoral campaign was built around providing American citizens with more benefits.

·       Organized Crime

This crime is committed by a group of people who exploit illegal sales and services of goods. Where once this was limited to Mafia and gangsters, it has reformed into something very structured. Most of these criminals involve business tycoons who use their wealth and power to lobby different people and take over control of a large enterprise. It can be anything from the liquor industry to the arms industry. Furthermore, they then use their power and resources to illegally smuggle these things into different countries and make millions as profits. One of the key points to take from organized crime is that it is so hard to convict these people. They wear the visage of gentlemen and conduct their business by masking behind a legitimate organization. Organized crime is one of the most growing concerns amongst American society, and the government needs to invest a huge amount of resources in tackling it before it grows too large.

·       Crimes against Property

America is a heaven for those who want to invest in real estate. However, this heaven is covered by a hell which comes in the form of burglary, larceny, theft, arson, extortion, and blackmail. The most common type of crime in America is against someone’s property. It can be against anything that a person owns. There is a very alarming increase in the number of car thefts each year as thieves are becoming more and more sophisticated, and it is becoming harder and harder to catch them. Once against most of the people convicted for this crime belong to urban, young, poor, and racial minorities.

·       White-Collar Crime

One of the biggest woes of America is that educated people who belong to a respectable organization and are working at a high level commit acts of criminal nature. Charges ranging from embezzling, insider trading, tax evasion, and violation income tax law, these upper management white-collar people of higher status make a huge part of criminals in the US. As these criminals don’t affect the general public, these crimes are not investigated to a greater extent, and most of these criminals walk free without much punishment. However, when you look at things from a greater perspective, they are causing huge losses to the country’s finances by stealing millions. During prosecution, the status and the higher class of these criminals also come into account so they can easily pay up their fine and continue doing whatever they were doing.

·       Crimes against Morality

These crimes are also known as a victimless crime as they don’t cause harm to the other person, but they are seen as morally bad. However, they are still prosecuted under the law as crimes and there can be severe punishments. They include prostitution, gambling, use of drug, or sale of drugs. When compared to other crimes, they are not that bad in nature, but they cause others to involve in indecent acts. However, in some states, there have been major riots to make drugs and prostetuation legal as they are a personal choice and should not be termed against the law.

·       Inchoate Crimes

These crimes are regarded as incomplete crimes. They are acts which were begun with the intent of causing another person some sort of harm but were left hanging in the middle. This includes when a person has taken substantial steps to formulate, begin, and perform a crime, but he lacked resource or help to complete it. It can be anything like an attempted robbery, solicitation, and conspiracy to commit fraud or some bad act. In the eyes of the law, if you come forward on your own, you will be dealt with leniency. But, if someone finds you guilty of the charge, you will face the wrath of a full criminal charge.

The Bottom Line

Crimes can’t be easily defined as we humans are capable of doing very bad things. Every day a person commits some indelible act that we have never even thought of. All the states have devised proper laws and jurisdictions to cover each crime and punish each criminal to the full extent of the law. The process of prosecution is highly linked to patterns that pertain to a person’s race, class, and gender.

However, the current judicial system is not a100% just. There are a lot of cases of mishandling and wrongful convictions. If you or someone you know is going through an unfortunate event of dealing with a criminal charge and you want to make sure that you don’t get punished for something you didn’t even commit, hiring a good lawyer would be in your best interest.