What Are Infractions, Misdemeanors, and Felonies?
What Are Infractions, Misdemeanors, and Felonies?
When it comes to crimes, they are broken up into three categories depending on their severity. Low level crimes are referred to as infractions, mid-level crimes are misdemeanors, and high level crimes are felonies. Understanding this distinction can help a person know just how much trouble someone is in when they are charged with a felony versus a misdemeanor.
A person is charged with an infraction for very low level crimes. Most traffic and parking tickets are considered infractions. Someone accused of these kinds of crimes will not face any jail time and will only have to deal with a small fee of no more than $250 here in California.
The next level of crimes are misdemeanors...