Terms that sort offenses by how serious they are and which court or authority deals with them, including felonies, indictable and summary offences, civil and municipal offences and status offenses. An entry belongs here when it names a class of offense rather than a particular act. It excludes the descriptive labels for kinds of crime, which sit in their own group. Entries placed here are Felony, Indictable Offence, Summary Offence, Civil Offence, Municipal Offense and Status Offense.
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Classes of Offense by Seriousness and Court
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Felony (Wikipedia)
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A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious.
Indictable offence (Wikipedia)
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In many common law jurisdictions (e.g., England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore), an indictable offence is an offence which can only be tried on an indictment after a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is a prima facie case to answer or by a grand jury (in contrast to a summary offence).
Summary offence (Wikipedia)
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A summary offence or petty offence is a violation in some common law jurisdictions that can be proceeded against summarily, without the right to a jury trial or indictment (required for an indictable offence).
Civil offence (Wikipedia)
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Civil offence was a term of art in military law in the United Kingdom.
Municipal offense (Wikipedia)
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In Wisconsin, a municipal offense or ordinance offense or civil offense or noncriminal offense or municipal infraction or infraction is the infringement of a city ordinance.
Status offense (Wikipedia)
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A status offense is an action that is prohibited only to a certain class of people, and most often applied only to crimes committed by minors.
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