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What’s the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony?
What’s the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony?
“Misdemeanor” and “Felony” are categories used by our judicial system to classify crimes, and their resulting punishment, by severity level. Misdemeanors are lower-level offenses, such as shoplifting and vandalism, while felonies typically are quite serious crimes—an extreme example being murder.
Felonies almost always carry stronger penalties than misdemeanors. Whether a particular crime is a felony or a misdemeanor can vary from state to state, and the federal government has its own definitions as well.
Sometimes, repetition of a misdemeanor-level crime can lead to a felony-level charge—meaning that a subsequent offense of a crime you’ve been convicted of in the past will be considered a felony for you, and not a misdemeanor. This is not true of all laws, however, or of all states. In Colorado, for instance, a person’s first conviction for animal cruelty is a Class 1 Misdemeanor, but a second or subsequent conviction for animal cruelty is a Class 6 Felony.
How many states have felony-level animal cruelty laws?
As of May 17, 2007, 48 states categorize at least one form of animal cruelty (or repeat offenses of certain misdemeanor acts of cruelty) as a felony. The District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico also have felony animal cruelty laws.
The remaining two states with no animal cruelty felony provisions are North Dakota and South Dakota.
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