Suspect
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In the parlance of criminal justice, a suspect is a known person suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often incorrectly use the word suspect when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp for short). The perpetrator is the robber, assailant, counterfeiter, etc. --the person who actually committed the crime. The distinction between suspect and perpetrator recognizes that the suspect is not known to have committed the offense, while the perpetrator—who may not yet have been suspected of the crime, and is thus not necessarily a suspect—is the one who actually did. The suspect may be a different person from the perpetrator, or there may have been no actual crime, which would mean there is no perpetrator.
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