GlossaryReports, outcomes, and case status
Charge
A criminal charge is a formal accusation that a person committed an offense under applicable law.
A criminal charge is a formal accusation that a person committed an offense under applicable law. It identifies an allegation for the legal process to address. A charge is not a determination of guilt, and the charge ultimately resolved in court may differ from an offense initially listed in a police record.
Where charges appear
Charges can appear in court documents, arrest summaries, jail records, and prosecutor reports. These records do not necessarily describe the same stage. The U.S. Courts glossary distinguishes charging documents such as complaints, informations, and indictments from a conviction.
In a court case, a count is an individual charge within a charging document. The San Diego Superior Court glossary uses this meaning. One defendant can face multiple counts, so a count of charges is not automatically a count of defendants, cases, or events.
Example
Hypothetical example: A court filing contains three counts arising from one alleged incident. Two are later dismissed, and the remaining count proceeds to trial.
The initial filing documents three allegations. It does not document three proven crimes or three separate incidents. A summary written after the dismissals should identify the stage it describes rather than continue presenting all three allegations as pending.
Common confusion
An arrest is taking a person into custody under legal authority. A charge is an allegation. A conviction is a determination of guilt. These concepts should be reported separately even when they concern the same person and event.
A statistical offense category is also different from a charge under a particular statute. A reporting program may group several state offenses under one broader heading.
Reading the exact record
Look for the statute, charge description, filing date, and most recent charge-level outcome. If a dataset labels a field “charge,” determine whether it contains an arrest allegation, a prosecutor-filed count, or the final offense of conviction. That choice changes what the field can establish.