Pennsylvania Title 18, the Crimes Code, sorts criminal offenses into a tiered system: murder sits at the top with its own sentencing rules, followed by three degrees of felony, three degrees of misdemeanor, and summary offenses at the bottom. Maximum prison terms under Title 18 crimes and penalties run from 90 days for a summary offense up to 20 years for a first-degree felony, with first-degree murder carrying a mandatory sentence of death or life imprisonment. Fines range from $300 to $25,000, and $50,000 for murder.
How Title 18 Classifies Offenses
Section 106 of the Crimes Code establishes the hierarchy every charge fits into.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 106 – Classes of Offenses Where a statute labels a crime a “felony” or “misdemeanor” without specifying a degree, it defaults to the third degree.
The maximum prison terms set by Chapter 11 are:
- First-degree felony: up to 20 years2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 1103 – Sentence of Imprisonment for Felony
- Second-degree felony: up to 10 years
- Third-degree felony: up to 7 years
- First-degree misdemeanor: up to 5 years3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 1104 – Sentence of Imprisonment for Misdemeanors
- Second-degree misdemeanor: up to 2 years
- Third-degree misdemeanor: up to 1 year
- Summary offense: up to 90 days4Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 1105 – Sentence of Imprisonment for Summary Offenses
First-degree murder is set apart. A conviction carries a mandatory sentence of death or life imprisonment, with no discretion for the court to go lower.
Summary offenses are handled by magisterial district courts and are the least serious category, but a summary conviction still creates a criminal record until it is sealed or expunged.
Maximum Fines by Grade
Section 1101 of Title 18 caps the fine a court can impose for each grade of offense.5Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 1101 – Fines
- Murder: up to $50,000
- First- or second-degree felony: up to $25,000
- Third-degree felony: up to $15,000
- First-degree misdemeanor: up to $10,000
- Second-degree misdemeanor: up to $5,000
- Third-degree misdemeanor: up to $2,500
- Summary offense: up to $300, unless a specific statute sets a different amount
One override matters when the crime produced money. For any offense, a court may impose a fine equal to double the financial gain the defendant derived from the crime, even if that figure runs past the ceiling listed above.
What the Major Categories Cover
Title 18 is organized into articles that group related offenses. Knowing which article a charge falls under gives you a quick read on how serious it is likely to be.
Crimes Against Persons
Article B covers conduct that endangers people and carries the heaviest penalties. Chapter 25 contains criminal homicide, from first-degree murder down through voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. Chapter 27 covers assault, with simple assault typically graded as a second-degree misdemeanor and aggravated assault usually a first- or second-degree felony depending on the victim and circumstances.6Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 Chapter 27 – Assault Chapter 29 addresses kidnapping (a first-degree felony) along with lower-grade unlawful restraint and false imprisonment. Chapter 31 covers sexual offenses, including rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, both first-degree felonies.7Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 Chapter 31 – Sexual Offenses
Property and Financial Offenses
Article C groups crimes against property. Chapter 33 covers arson, Chapter 35 burglary and criminal trespass, Chapter 37 robbery, Chapter 39 the full range of theft offenses (shoplifting, receiving stolen property, theft by deception, theft of services), and Chapter 41 forgery and fraudulent practices.8Justia. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Crimes and Offenses Grading inside each chapter usually turns on dollar value, whether force was used, or whether a weapon was involved.
Offenses Against Public Administration
Article E targets conduct aimed at government and the courts. Chapter 47 covers bribery, Chapter 49 covers perjury, unsworn falsification, and tampering with evidence (tampering with physical evidence is a second-degree misdemeanor),9Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 4910 – Tampering With or Fabricating Physical Evidence and Chapter 51 covers obstruction of justice, escape, witness intimidation, and retaliation.
Attempt, Solicitation, and Conspiracy
Chapter 9 covers crimes that were planned or started but not completed. Attempt requires a “substantial step” toward the offense; solicitation means asking or encouraging another to commit it; conspiracy requires an agreement plus an overt act. The grading is the trap: attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy are punished at the same grade and degree as the completed crime being pursued.10Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 905 – Grading of Criminal Attempt, Solicitation and Conspiracy Conspiring to commit a first-degree felony is itself a first-degree felony, which catches many drug-case defendants off guard when a participant who never handled the drugs faces the same exposure as the person who did.
Self-Defense and Justification
Chapter 5 defines when force is legally justified. Section 505 permits force in self-protection when you reasonably believe it is immediately necessary against unlawful force, with stricter rules for deadly force: it is justified only against death, serious bodily injury, kidnapping, or sexual assault by force, and the law generally requires retreat if you can do so safely.11Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 505 – Use of Force in Self-Protection There is no duty to retreat from your home or workplace, and Pennsylvania’s stand-your-ground provision lifts the retreat requirement in other locations when the attacker displays or uses a weapon capable of causing death or serious injury. You cannot use force to resist an arrest by a known police officer, even if the arrest is unlawful.
Where Drug Charges Actually Live
Most drug offenses are not in Title 18. Pennsylvania’s possession, manufacturing, delivery, and paraphernalia offenses sit in a separate statute, the Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act at 35 P.S. § 780-101 et seq. Penalties depend on the substance and quantity, and large-delivery charges carry some of the longest sentences in Pennsylvania criminal law.
Title 18 does reach drug conduct in a few spots. Section 6317 adds enhanced penalties for drug delivery in a school zone, and Chapter 25 includes a separate offense for drug delivery resulting in death. For the core possession and delivery statutes, look outside Title 18.
Mandatory Minimums and Enhancements
Pennsylvania once attached mandatory minimum sentences to a long list of firearm, drug, and school-zone offenses. After Alleyne v. United States (2013) and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Hopkins, most of those mandatory minimums were struck down because they allowed judges rather than juries to find the facts that triggered the enhancement.
What survived are mandatory minimums tied to a defendant’s prior record, which is already an established fact. Pennsylvania’s “three strikes” law at 42 Pa.C.S. § 9714 still requires a mandatory minimum of 10 to 20 years for a second conviction of certain violent crimes and 25 to 50 years for a third. DUI mandatory minimums also remain in force. Separately, the Pennsylvania Sentencing Guidelines include a deadly weapon enhancement that raises the recommended range when a weapon is used, and judges routinely apply it.
Deadlines to Bring Charges
The statutes of limitations are not in Title 18. They sit in Title 42, Chapter 55 of the Judiciary Code. The general rule is two years to begin a prosecution.12Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 42 – Section 5552 – Other Offenses
A five-year window applies to many of the more serious Title 18 offenses, including aggravated assault, kidnapping, arson, burglary, robbery, theft, forgery, insurance fraud, bribery, perjury, obstruction of justice, and witness intimidation. Drug offenses under the Controlled Substance Act also sit at five years.
Murder has no statute of limitations, and neither does criminal homicide of an unborn child. Major sexual offenses have their own extended or eliminated deadlines, depending on the victim’s age and when the offense was discovered. Whether an old case can still be charged depends entirely on which specific offense is at issue.
Consequences Beyond the Sentence
The penalties in Chapter 11 are only the direct criminal sanctions. A Title 18 conviction can trigger consequences that long outlast the sentence.
The firearm restriction is the most sweeping. Under Section 6105, a conviction for any “enumerated offense” produces a lifetime ban on possessing, using, selling, or transferring firearms in Pennsylvania. The enumerated list includes murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, stalking, kidnapping, rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, arson, burglary, robbery, and carjacking, among others. The ban applies regardless of the sentence imposed and reaches convictions from other states.13Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 6105 – Persons Not to Possess, Use, Manufacture, Control, Sell or Transfer Firearms
A criminal record can also affect employment, housing, professional licensing, immigration status, and eligibility for public benefits. These collateral consequences are rarely addressed at sentencing but often weigh more on daily life than the jail time itself.
Clearing a Record Under Clean Slate
Pennsylvania’s Clean Slate law at 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.2 seals certain records automatically. Sealed records stay accessible to law enforcement and courts but no longer appear on background checks run by employers or landlords.14Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 – Section 9122.2 – Clean Slate Limited Access
Automatic sealing covers second- and third-degree misdemeanor convictions after seven years without a new conviction for any offense punishable by one or more years in prison, provided court-ordered restitution has been paid. Summary convictions qualify after five years on the same terms. Non-conviction records, including dismissals and acquittals, are also eligible.
Recent amendments extended sealing to certain less-serious drug felonies and other qualifying offenses after 10 years without a new felony or misdemeanor conviction, again with restitution paid. Theft-related felonies still require a court petition rather than automatic sealing. The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts identifies qualifying records and works with the Pennsylvania State Police to update their databases, so most people do not need to file paperwork.
Clean Slate does not reach every offense. Serious violent crimes, sexual offenses, and certain other convictions are permanently excluded. For many Pennsylvanians carrying old misdemeanor or summary records, though, it offers a route to clearing a background check without hiring a lawyer or filing an expungement petition.