Felony and misdemeanour, in Anglo-American law, classification of criminal offenses according to the seriousness of the crime.
The law of England has employed no consistent principle to determine the classification of an offense as a felony.
Crime, délit, and contravention, three classifications of criminal offense that are central to the administration of justice in many Roman- and civil-law countries (for distinctions in Anglo-American law covering analogous offenses, see felony and misdemeanour).
In U.S. law the classification of a crime as a felony or as a misdemeanour is ordinarily determined by the penalties attached to the offense.
Classifications distinguishing offenses of greater dangerousness from lesser crimes appear in continental European codes: thus, the French penal code distinguishes between délits and contraventions (see crime, délit, and contravention).
"The Supreme Court has said in a series of cases that the government's theories of deportation have been wrong for years," said Daniel Kanstroom, a professor at Boston College Law School, citing earlier decisions that rejected the government's classification of other minor crimes as deportable offenses.
But the list of offenses ran deep.
The increased risk for offending was not specifically found for sexual offenses, instead it was found for various types of offenses.
In addition, the time it takes for someone to recidivate for a drug-involved offense is much shorter than other types of offenses (Holleran 2002).
Justice staff also provided information regarding "most serious" current offense, categorized as interpersonal (person- or weapon-related) versus all other types of offenses.
