Is there no law against "civic indifference"? asks Lawyer George Goldberg in the American Bar Association Journal. There is indeed, he says. It is called "misprision of felony" (from the Old French mesprendre, to mistake). Misprision is a crime of omission—a failure to act. In 1907, the Vermont Supreme Court defined it as "a criminal neglect either to prevent a felony or to bring the offender to justice after its commission." Misprision thus differs from "accessory" offenses, such as assent or assistance in a felony.
>Misprision thus differs from “accessory” offenses..<
Is misprision a felony or is it something that the court will excuse as a “Oh, you poor innocent child, I’ll let you off for now but don’t do it again.”?