Civil infraction

In common law countries, a civil infraction is a non-criminal violation of a rule, ordinance, or regulation.[1]

United States law

A civil infraction is a violation of the law less serious than a misdemeanor,[2] and which usually does not attach certain individual rights such as a jury trial.

Unless the civil infraction is a violation of the sex offender registry. The sex offender registry has been judged constitutional due to being a civil measure instead of a criminal punishment. It appears to be the only civil infraction that is a felony and carries an extended prison sentence, however, leading some to doubt whether even lawmakers realize it isn't supposed to be punitive.

Punishments for infractions

In the United States, the key characteristic of an infraction is that the punishment seldom includes any amount of incarceration in a prison or jail or any other loss of civil rights – typically the only punishment is a fine, although sometimes other regulatory actions are possible (e.g. revocation of a license or permit) or an order to remedy or mitigate the situation.

References

  1. ↑ Michigan Prosecutor Glossary of Criminal Terms Retrieved 3 May 2010
  2. ↑ Michigan Court Handbook of Legal Terms Archived 28 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 3 May 2010

3. https://mjieducation.mi.gov/documents/resources-for-trial-court-staff/178-holt-rev-2015/file

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.