As one of the fifty states of the United States, California follows common law criminal procedure. The principal source of law for California criminal procedure is the California Penal Code, Part 2, "Of Criminal Procedure." With a population of about 40 million people, in California every year there are approximately: * 166 thousand violent crimes and one million property crimes committed * 1.5 million arrests made * 270,000 felony cases, 900,000 misdemeanor cases, and 5 million infraction cases heard by the California superior courts