A felony is a really grave crime, such as a murder or a robbery, while a misdemeanor is a smaller one — for example, shoplifting. If you commit a felony, you can get a death sentence (in some states), a long jail time, or at least a large fine. A misdemeanor is punished by a much shorter jail time or a rather small fine. 

Under different conditions, one crime can be a misdemeanor and a felony — for instance, driving slightly drunk is a misdemeanor, but if you’re severely drunk or driving with kids, it becomes a full-blown felony.

The main crime types

The majority of US criminal systems classify all crimes depending on how serious they are. The main types are felonies, misdemeanors, and infractions. They’re usually defined by the length of their jail sentences. In general, if you want to know whether a crime is a felony, a misdemeanor, or an infraction, you can look at the jail sentence given for it.

Infraction

An infraction is the smallest type of crime, even smaller than a misdemeanor. Usually, all you can get for it is a fine, but in some cases, you can be put into jail for several days.

Examples of such crimes are:

• Going by bus without a ticket;
• Throwing a piece of litter on the street;
• Making noise at nighttime.

Misdemeanor

A misdemeanor is a crime that is bigger than an infraction but smaller than a felony. Usually, it is punished by a jail sentence of 1 year or several months. 

Like infractions, misdemeanors are classified into different categories with different jail terms:

• Class A — between 6 months and one year;
• Class B — 1-6 months;
• Class C — between 5 days and one month.

In most cases, offenders are put into local jails, not federal prisons with high levels of security. With misdemeanors, prosecutors usually can be very flexible when choosing the punishment and negotiating plea bargains.

Felony

A felony is the worst and gravest category of crime. According to the federal US authorities, it’s a crime that’s punished with more than a year of jail time, but definitions given by states often vary.

Just as other types of crimes, felonies have their own classification:

• Class A — an execution or a life sentence;
• Class B — more than 25 years in prison;
• Class C — 10-25 years;
• Class D — 5-10 years;
• Class E — 1-5 years.

Because felonies are so severely punished, the rights of the defendant need to be strongly protected, and the whole procedure has to be watched closely. Typically, society looks at such crimes as unacceptable since they’re the most harmful and dangerous ones — for example, burglaries, rapes, murders, arsons, and kidnappings. So, they should be punished adequately.