What is the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony on a criminal record?

Misdemeanors and felonies differ by each state. But generally a misdemeanor is categorized by any criminal act that would receive less than one year in prison. Anything over that year mark would be considered a felony. But as mentioned before these sentences and classifications can vary according to state. Take for example a DUI (Driving Under the Influence) as something that can be either a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the state and how many times a person has received a DUI ticket.

Who is in charge of a criminal record?

There are several agencies that are responsible for maintaining different types of records here in the United States. The Department of Justice has a database just for criminal records. The NCIC is the National Crime Information Center. It is a repository for all federal records and works in conjunction with state and local officials to update the information.

What system is used to perform a background check before anyone can purchase a firearm?

Thanks to the Brady Bill there is a background check performed before anyone can own a license to have a firearm. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System or NICS is a database used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to see if a person is disqualified from owning a firearm.

More On: Your Criminal Record Questions

Technorati Tags: crime, criminal record qa, your criminal record questions

Quickly bookmark Criminal Record Questions at:                                                

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Legal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.