ABA Family Legal Guide

Criminal Justice

The Police and Your Rights

Criminal Charges

How are criminal charges brought against someone?

There are basically three ways in which formal charges may be brought: information, indictment, or citation. An information is a written document filed by a prosecutor alleging that the defendant committed a crime. The information may be based upon a criminal complaint, which is a petition to the prosecutor requesting that criminal charges be initiated.

An indictment is a formal charge imposed by the grand jury, which is a group of citizens convened by the court. Its function is to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to charge a person with a crime and to bring him or her to trial. The grand jury conducts its proceedings in secret and has broad investigative powers. The federal system and about half of the states use grand juries in felony cases. The majority of defendants are not charged by a grand jury, but through some other mechanism.

A citation is issued by a police officer, most often for a misdemeanor or other minor criminal matter such as jaywalking, littering, or a minor traffic offense.

None of these mechanisms determines the guilt or innocence of defendants. Rather, they indicate that the issuing authority has determined that there is sufficient evidence to bring a person to trial.