Editing Felony (section)

===History===
Under common law, felonies were crimes punishable by either death, [[Asset forfeiture|forfeiture]] of [[property]], or both. While felony charges remain serious, concerns of [[Proportionality (law)|proportionality]] (i.e., that the punishment fits the crime) have since prompted legislatures to require or permit the imposition of less serious punishments, ranging from lesser terms of [[imprisonment]] to the substitution of a [[jail]] sentence or even the [[Suspended sentence|suspension]] of all incarceration contingent upon a defendant's successful completion of [[probation]].<ref>''Doing Justice – The Choice of Punishments'', A VONHIRSCH'', 1976, p.220</ref><ref>''Criminology'', Larry J. Siegel</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dau-Schmidt |first=Kenneth G. |date=1990 |title=An Economic Analysis of the Criminal Law as a Preference-Shaping Policy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1372651 |journal=Duke Law Journal |volume=1990 |issue=1 |pages=1–38 |doi=10.2307/1372651 |jstor=1372651 |issn=0012-7086|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Standards for measurement of an offense's seriousness include attempts<ref name="OSS">{{Cite journal |last1=Lynch |first1=James P. |last2=Danner |first2=Mona J. E. |date=1993-09-01 |title=Offense seriousness scaling: An alternative to scenario methods |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01064464 |journal=Journal of Quantitative Criminology |language=en |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=309–322 |doi=10.1007/BF01064464 |issn=1573-7799|url-access=subscription }}</ref> to quantitatively estimate and compare the effects of a crime upon its specific victims or society generally.

The reform of harsh felony laws that had originated in Great Britain was deemed "one of the first fruits of liberty" after the United States became independent.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Felony Law Reform in the Early Republic |author=Bradley Chapin |journal=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography |volume= 113 |number=2 |date=April 1989 |pages=163–183 |jstor=20092326}}</ref>