New Jersey Degrees of Crimes, From First Degree to Disorderly Persons

Reviewed by William A. Proetta, Esq. · Updated October 2026

New Jersey grades crimes in four degrees: a first-degree crime carries 10 to 20 years in prison, second degree 5 to 10 years, third degree 3 to 5 years, and fourth degree up to 18 months, under N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6(a). Below the crimes are disorderly persons offenses (up to 6 months in jail) and petty disorderly persons offenses (up to 30 days), which the Code says are not crimes at all.

First degree is the most serious grade. Fourth degree is the least serious crime, not the worst. New Jersey law does not use the words “felony” or “misdemeanor,” but in common usage the four degrees of crime are roughly what other states call felonies, and disorderly persons offenses are roughly misdemeanors. The degree written on a complaint decides more than the sentence range. It decides which court hears the case, whether a grand jury must indict, whether there is a jury trial, which sentencing presumption applies, and how long the wait is to expunge.

Guide Contents

What Are the Penalties for Each Degree in New Jersey?

An offense is a crime if New Jersey law authorizes more than 6 months of imprisonment (N.J.S.A. 2C:1-4(a)). Everything at or below 6 months is a disorderly persons or petty disorderly persons offense. The chart below lists the ordinary ranges and the maximum fines under N.J.S.A. 2C:43-3.

Three points the table cannot show:

• Fines can go higher. Under 2C:43-3, a court may impose double the offender’s gain or the victim’s loss. For drug offenses under chapter 35, the fine can reach three times the street value of the drug.
• Some first-degree crimes have their own ranges. Murder, carjacking, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault of a child under 13 are sentenced outside the 10-to-20-year range. The first-degree chapter sets them out.
• Expungement waits run from the latest event. For an indictable conviction, the 5 years run from the latest of the conviction, payment of fines, completion of probation or parole, or release (N.J.S.A. 2C:52-2). Our page on expungement eligibility and waiting periods covers each outcome.

How Does a Charge Get Its Degree?

The degree comes from the statute that defines the offense. Most offense statutes contain a grading section that sets the degree by specific facts: how much money, how badly someone was hurt, whether there was a weapon, who the victim was, or where it happened. The same conduct can land in any of several grades.

Two default rules fill gaps. A statute that declares an offense a crime without stating a degree makes it fourth degree (N.J.S.A. 2C:43-1(a)). An attempt or conspiracy is generally the same degree as the crime attempted, except that an attempt or conspiracy to commit a first-degree crime is second degree, with murder and terrorism kept at first degree (N.J.S.A. 2C:5-4). For a single offense traced through every grade, see our article on how one offense can be any degree: assault.

How Do I Find the Degree on My Complaint?

The charging document is either a complaint-summons, which orders you to appear in court, or a complaint-warrant, which leads to an arrest and a pretrial release decision. Each charge is listed by its statute section, and the degree is usually printed next to it.

To read it:

1. Find the section number. Charges appear as “2C:” followed by a chapter and section, such as 2C:20-3 for theft.
2. Read the degree for each charge separately. One incident often produces several charges of different grades. The most serious charge sets the top of your exposure and decides the court.
3. If no degree is printed, check the grading subsection. The degree depends on the facts alleged, such as the dollar value or the injury described in the complaint.
4. Check the court named. A charge of any degree sends the case to the Superior Court. A complaint with only disorderly persons charges stays in the municipal court.

The degree on the complaint is the starting point. It can change before the case ends.

Can the Degree Go Up or Down After I Am Charged?

Yes. The complaint reflects what the police alleged on the day of the arrest. Several later decisions can raise or lower the grade.

The downgrade and remand decision is “fully within the State’s discretion,” according to the Administrative Office of the Courts (Directive #13-23, 2023). When a case is remanded, pretrial monitoring generally drops to release on recognizance, except where a domestic-violence charge is involved. A downgrade can happen even after the time limit on the lesser offense has run, as long as prosecution of the greater offense was commenced within its own limit (N.J.S.A. 2C:1-6(d)).

A judge can also sentence a first or second-degree conviction in the next lower range when clearly convinced that the mitigating factors substantially outweigh the aggravating factors and the interest of justice demands it (N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(d)(2)); the prosecutor then has 10 days to appeal the sentence. P.L.2025, c.328 briefly removed that power in January 2026, and P.L.2026, c.30 restored it, retroactively, in July 2026. A lower range can also come from a plea to an amended charge or from the new abuse-related mitigating factor described below.

What Decides the Sentence Within the Range?

The range sets the floor and the ceiling. Several rules decide where a sentence lands inside it, or whether a different range applies.

Aggravating and mitigating factors. N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1 lists 15 aggravating factors and 15 mitigating factors. The judge weighs them to choose the term. Two mitigating factors are recent: factor (14), added in 2020, applies when the defendant was under 26 at the time of the offense, and factor (15), added by P.L.2025, c.328 in January 2026, applies when domestic violence or other substantial abuse of the defendant contributed to the conviction. Factor (15) does not apply to murder or to offenses that require sex-offender registration. When it applies, N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(i) sets reduced ranges: 5 to 10 years for first degree, 3 to 5 years for second, up to 18 months for third, up to 6 months for fourth, and probation or conditional discharge for a disorderly persons offense.

No presumptive term. The Code once set “presumptive” terms of 15 years for first degree, 7 for second, 4 for third and 9 months for fourth. In State v. Natale, 184 N.J. 458 (2005), the Supreme Court held the presumptive-term system unconstitutional and eliminated it, and P.L.2025, c.328 deleted the presumptive-term text from N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1 in January 2026. Starting at the middle of the range is “one reasonable approach, but it is not compelled.” Pages that quote 15, 7 or 4 years as the expected sentence are repeating the old system.

NERA. Under N.J.S.A. 2C:43-7.2, a person convicted of a listed first or second-degree crime must serve 85% of the sentence before parole eligibility, followed by parole supervision of 5 years (first degree) or 3 years (second degree). The list includes murder, aggravated assault, robbery, sexual assault, carjacking, kidnapping and, since 2024, residential and home invasion burglary. It does not cover every second-degree crime. Our guide to which crimes require 85% before parole (NERA) has the full list.

Graves Act. Listed gun-possession offenses, and listed crimes committed while using or possessing a firearm, carry a minimum term without parole of one-half the sentence or 42 months, whichever is greater, and 18 months for a fourth-degree crime (N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6(c)).

Extended terms. On the prosecutor’s application, a judge can impose an extended term on a first, second or third-degree crime for a persistent offender (generally, someone 21 or older with two prior crimes committed on separate occasions within the statute’s time window), a professional criminal, a crime for hire, or a second offense with a firearm (N.J.S.A. 2C:44-3). A fourth-degree extended term applies only where another statute, such as the firearm provisions, authorizes it.

Consecutive or concurrent. When there are several convictions, State v. Yarbough, 100 N.J. 627 (1985), guides whether the terms run together or back to back. “There can be no free crimes,” and the judge must state reasons, considering whether the crimes were independent, involved separate acts of violence, occurred at different times or places, or involved multiple victims.

Does New Jersey Have Felonies and Misdemeanors?

Not as legal categories. New Jersey statutes use “crimes” of the first through fourth degree and “disorderly persons offenses.” Saying that crimes are roughly felonies and disorderly persons offenses are roughly misdemeanors is common usage, and the Legislature has drawn the same comparison: its statement to P.L.2021, c.298 describes a felony elsewhere as generally punishable by more than 1 year and a misdemeanor as 1 year or less. Since that law, an out-of-state conviction counts in New Jersey as a crime if the other jurisdiction authorized more than 1 year, as a disorderly persons offense if more than 30 days up to 1 year, and as a petty disorderly persons offense if 30 days or less.

So a “4th degree felony” or “3rd degree felony” search is asking about a fourth or third-degree crime. One caution: where older New Jersey statutes outside the Code use the word “misdemeanor,” it means a crime, not a disorderly persons offense (N.J.S.A. 2C:1-4(d)).

Disorderly persons offenses “are not crimes within the meaning of the Constitution of this State” (2C:1-4(b)), and a conviction does not carry the disabilities that come with a crime. Specific statutes still attach consequences to some of them, such as the firearms permit bar for a disorderly persons offense involving domestic violence.

How Long Does the State Have to File Charges?

The deadline depends on the grade and, for some offenses, on the specific charge (N.J.S.A. 2C:1-6).

For a crime, the prosecution is “commenced when an indictment is found”; for a disorderly persons offense, when a warrant or other process is issued (2C:1-6(d)). The clock does not start in a DNA or fingerprint case until the State has both the evidence and a matching identification, and it does not run while a person is fleeing from justice. Vehicular homicide is not on the no-limit list.

Talk to a Lawyer About the Degree of Your Charge

The degree on your complaint is the State’s opening position, and it can change. Call William Proetta Criminal Law at (201) 793-8018 for a free, confidential case review, or contact us.