In 2008, there were 415,810 crimes reported in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

, including 605 murders. In 2014, there were 318,464 crimes reported, including 510 murders. Between 2003 and 2012, there were an average of 15,255 vehicle thefts per year in North Carolina.

Policing

In 2008, North Carolina had 504 state and local law enforcement agencies. Those agencies employed a total of 35,140 staff. Of the total staff, 23,442 were sworn officers (defined as those with general arrest powers).

Police ratio

In 2008, North Carolina had 380 police officers per 100,000 residents, in which 254 are sworn officers.

Adjudication

State criminal charges in North Carolina are adjudicated by the unified Judicial System known as the General Court of Justice of the North Carolina Judicial Branch. At least one courthouse is located in each county of the state.

Misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than adm ...

charges are tried in the District Courts, while the

Superior Court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civi ...

has original jurisdiction over

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that res ...

charges. Aside from when a law enforcement officer issues a criminal

citation A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose o ...

, criminal processes typically begin when a judicial official, usually a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

, issues processes such as a Warrant for Arrest, a Magistrate's Order following a warrantless arrest, or a Criminal Summons upon the testimony of a prosecuting witness or witnesses, with the primary prosecuting witness known as the complainant. Alternately, a prosecutor can bring charges to a

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a p ...

for

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that ...

. Following an arrest, at an initial appearance, a judicial official sets the

bail bond Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countrie ...

and other conditions of release. Pleas of not guilty a lead to misdemeanor bench trials in District Court of the county where the crime was charged, with an appeal going to jury trial in Superior Court. All felony trials are jury trials held in Superior court, although some preliminary hearings including the first appearance often occur in District Court before a probable cause hearing, a waiver of the same, or indictment by grand jury. The prosecuting attorneys representing the State of North Carolina are the elected

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a ...

and their assistants. North Carolina has 43 prosecutorial districts, each consisting of up to seven counties. Criminal defendants who cannot to afford a private

defense attorney A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various ju ...

are served by Indigent Defense Services, a state agency, through a public defender's office in certain judicial districts or a court appointed private attorney. Convictions for criminal offences are sentenced under the Structured Sentencing the system introduced in 1994 to standardize sentences with increased sentences for offenders with lengthy

criminal records A criminal record, police record, or colloquially RAP sheet (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between coun ...

. Punishment for impaired driving convictions is the only exception to Structured Sentencing, which are punished under the prior sentencing system.

Capital punishment laws

Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

is applied in this state.

Notable cases

2007 -

Murder of Eve Carson On the morning of March 5, 2008, Eve Marie Carson was shot and killed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States where she was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Demario James Atwater and Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. ...

2012 - Killing of Faith Hedgepeth 2015 - Chapel Hill Shooting

References