What is a criminal offense and is a misdemeanor offense different?

hardboiled: What is a criminal offense and is a misdemeanor offense different?
If it says on an application if you’ve had a criminal offense besides driving tickets does that mean misdemeanors or very big offenses?

So basically what is a criminal offense? Is is all incidents with police or just major ones like felony, larceny, etc.?

Answers and Views:

Answer by jjt
usually they just want to know if you have ever been convicted of a felony. but you better tell the truth cause they will do a background check and it will turn up. a misdemeanor is something simple like shoplifting while a felony is a major crime like bank robbery

Answer by Bruce
Criminal offense is anything that could result in jail time. It doesn’t mean you did jail time, it just means jail was possible.

Crimes are divided into two parts: felonies and misdemeanors. A misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in jail. A felony is punishable by over a year.