A criminal charge is a formal accusation made by a governmental authority (usually a

public prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible ...

or the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

) asserting that somebody has committed a

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

. A charging document, which contains one or more criminal charges or counts, can take several forms, including: *

complaint In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...

information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...

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 offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an ind ...

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 ...

traffic ticket A traffic ticket is a notice issued by a law enforcement official to a motorist or other road user, indicating that the user has violated traffic laws. Traffic tickets generally come in two forms, citing a moving violation, such as exceeding ...

The charging document is what generally starts a criminal case in

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

. But the procedure by which somebody is charged with a crime and what happens when somebody has been charged varies from country to country and even sometimes within a country. Before a person is found guilty of a crime, a criminal charge must be proven

beyond a reasonable doubt Beyond (a) reasonable doubt is a legal standard of proof required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems. It is a higher standard of proof than the standard of balance of probabilities (US English: preponderance of t ...

Punishment

There can be multiple

punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon an individual or group, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a deterrent to a particular action or beh ...

s due to certain criminal charges. Minor criminal charges such as

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 admi ...

s, tickets, and infractions have less harsh

punishments Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or suffering, unpleasant outcome upon an individual or group, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a deterrent to a particular actio ...

. The judge usually sentences the person accused of committing the charges right after the hearing. The punishments generally include fines, suspension, probation, a small amount of jail time, or alcohol and drug classes. If the criminal charges are considered more serious like a

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 r ...

, then there is a lengthier process for determining the punishment. Felonies include the most serious crimes such as

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

and

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

. In addition to the trial that decides innocence or guilt, there is a separate trial (after one is

convicted In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a trial by jud ...

) that determines the punishment(s) for the criminal charges committed.

Rights when facing criminal charges

Europe

Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights is a provision of the European Convention which protects the right to a fair trial in criminal law cases and in cases to determine civil rights. It protects the right to a public hearing before ...

protects the right to a fair trial.

United States

In the United States, people facing criminal charges in any situation enjoy certain rights under the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

. These rights include the

right to remain silent The right to silence is a legal principle which guarantees any individual the right to refuse to confession (law), answer questions from law enforcement officers or court officials. It is a legal right recognized, explicitly or by convention, in ...

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...

, the right to an attorney, and

double jeopardy In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases ...

. It is important for someone who faces criminal charges to know their rights so they can take the proper action to exercise their rights. Among those rights are a criminal suspect's ''Miranda'' Rights which are read to a suspect prior to interrogation while in the custody of the police. If a suspect is not given a ''Miranda'' warning prior to interrogation it is possible that the suspect's statements will be excluded from evidence in a later criminal prosecution.

India

As per Article 21 of the Constitution of India, "No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law, nor shall any person be denied equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India". It also covers a just and fair trial without any arbitrary procedure, which confers that arrest should not only be legal but also justified. In this context, this article consists of the procedural and constitutional rights of the accused before and after the arrest in India. Except when exceptions are created, the accused person, unless and until provided otherwise, is considered innocent until proven guilty before the court of law.

Prosecution

Many people avoid criminal charges by staying out of the state where they committed the crime. A person facing state criminal charges is always prosecuted in the state where they committed the charges. A person may be able to get away with minor violations like a ticket, but they will not be able to hide from something like a misdemeanor or a felony. There are about sixty criminal charges that are considered more serious that people face every day. These charges can range from less serious actions such as

shoplifting Shoplifting (also known as shop theft, shop fraud, retail theft, or retail fraud) is the theft of goods from a retail establishment during business hours. The terms ''shoplifting'' and ''shoplifter'' are not usually defined in law, and genera ...

vandalism Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property. The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The t ...

to more serious crimes such as

Reckoning

A person may be unaware that they have been charged. They can contact an attorney to ascertain if they have charged with any crime. A police officer may also charge someone after investigating the possible crime committed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Criminal Charge Criminal procedure Documents