Misdemeanor

Introduction to Misdemeanor

Misdemeanor, in criminal law, term applied to any offense other than a felony. In the U.S., the criminal codes of the states vary in their classifications of the offenses considered misdemeanors, but misdemeanors are always the less serious crimes. Examples of such crimes are criminal libel, assault in the third degree, conspiracy in the third and fourth degrees, criminal tampering, and possession of gambling records. Prosecution for a misdemeanor is generally by information and not by indictment, and persons found guilty are generally punished by fine or imprisonment in a prison other than a state penitentiary.” (1)

Concept of Misdemeanor

Note: explore also the meaning of this legal term in the American Ecyclopedia of Law.

Resources

See Also

• Judiciary

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about Misdemeanor in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Further Reading

• Katherine Beckett & Steve Herbert, Banished: The New Social Control in Urban America (Oxford University Press 2009).
• Stanley Cohen, Visions of Social Control: Crime, Punishment and Classification (Polity Press 1985).
• Markus Dirk Dubber, The Police Power: Patriarchy and the Foundations of American Government (Columbia University Press 2005).
• Malcolm M. Feeley, The Process Is the Punishment: Handling Cases in a Lower Criminal Court (Russell Sage 1979).
• John Irwin, The Jail: Managing the Underclass in American Society (University of California Press 1985).
• Jonathan Simon, Governing Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear (Oxford University Press 2007).
• Loïc Wacquant, Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity (Duke University Press 2009).