Even though no charges have been filed against Chris Brown yet concerning the incident involving the singer and his girlfriend Rihanna, the injuries that the latter suffered as a result are what will determine whether Brown would be spending some time in prison or not.

On February 8, Brown was arrested by the Los Angeles police and at that time, he was charged with having made criminal threats, after which he was released on $50,000 bail, while the case was scheduled to be sent to the district attorney's office.

The case has yet to be presented to the District Attorney, who will decide which charges will be prosecuted.

Nevertheless, for a first-time defendant like Chris Brown, the charges depend mainly on how badly the victim of the assault was hurt, whereas other factors such as the victim's cooperation with authorities or whether the victim was the one to  initiate the struggle are not that important.

For the time being, the police have only stated that the case was a domestic violence incident that had involved singer Chris Brown, 19, yet no official confirmation with regards to whether the victim was Rihanna or not has been released.

There is an important difference between a misdemeanor charge and felony, with the first being a crime that is punished by up to a year in county jail, while the second is punishable by more than a year in state prison.

Last week, entertainment website TMZ.com released photos of Rihanna’s injuries, in which the 21-year-old singer’s lips are swollen, while she has welts on her forehead and bruises on her eyes, nose and cheeks.