Perfect crimes are

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

s that are undetected, unattributed to an identifiable perpetrator, or otherwise unsolved or unsolvable as a kind of technical achievement on the part of the perpetrator. The term is used

colloquial Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conver ...

ly in law and fiction (especially

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

). In certain contexts, the concept of perfect crime is limited to just undetected crimes; if an event is ever identified as a crime, some investigators say it cannot be called "perfect". A perfect crime should be distinguished from one that has merely not been solved yet or where everyday chance or procedural matters frustrate a

conviction In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which is consid ...

. There is an element that the crime is (or appears likely to be) ''unable'' to be solved.

Overview

As used by some criminologists and others who study criminal investigations (including mystery writers), a perfect crime goes unsolved not because of incompetence in the investigation, but because of the cleverness and skill of the criminal. In other words, the defining factor is the primary causative influence of the criminal's ability to avoid investigation and reprisal, and not so much the ability of the investigating authority to perform its duties. Would-be perfect crimes are a popular subject in

and

movies A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

. They include ''

Perfect Crime (play) ''Perfect Crime'' is a 1987 murder mystery/thriller play by Warren Manzi. It tells the story of Margaret Thorne Brent, a Connecticut psychiatrist and potential cold-blooded killer who may have committed "the perfect crime." When her wealthy husba ...

'', ''

Rope A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...

'', ''

Double Indemnity ''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American crime film noir directed by Billy Wilder, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. The screenplay was based on James M. Cain's 1943 novel of the same ...

'', ''

Special 26 ''Special 26'' is an Indian Hindi-language 2013 period heist thriller film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. Based on the 1987 Opera House heist. The plot follows, A team of tricksters ( Akshay Kumar with Anupam Kher ) pose as CBI office ...

,'' '' Strangers on a Train'', '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'', ''

Witness for the Prosecution In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...

'', and ''

Dial M for Murder ''Dial M for Murder'' is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it was ...

''.

Varying definitions

A murder committed by somebody who had never before met the victim, has no criminal record, steals nothing, and tells no one might be a perfect crime. According to criminologists and scientists, this casual definition of perfect crime exists. Another possibility is that a crime might be committed in an area of high public traffic, where DNA from a wide variety of people is present, making the sifting of evidence akin to 'finding a needle in a haystack'. An intentional killing in which the death is never identified as murder is an example of one of the more rigorous definitions of perfect crime. Other criminologists narrow the range to only those crimes that are not detected at all. By definition, it can never be known if such perfect crimes exist. Many "close calls" have been observed, however—enough to make investigators aware of the possibility of a perfect crime.

Unprosecutable crime

In 2005, Professor

Brian C. Kalt Brian C. Kalt (born 1972) is an American legal scholar at the Michigan State University College of Law, particularly known for his research of the constitution of the United States. Career Kalt has taught at Michigan State University College o ...

Michigan State University College of Law The Michigan State University College of Law (Michigan State Law or MSU Law) is the law school of Michigan State University, a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan. Established in 1891 as the Detroit College of Law, it was the fi ...

put forth an argument that the

Vicinage Clause The Vicinage Clause is a provision in the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution regulating the vicinity from which a jury pool may be selected. The clause says that the accused shall be entitled to an ''"impartial jury of the State ...

of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

– requiring jury selection from the population of the state and court district where the crime is committed – may permit the commission of the "perfect crime" on the technical grounds that a jury trial could not be carried out. Since there are no residents in the portion of

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

that lies within the state of

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, and since the entire park has been placed within the jurisdiction of the Court for the District of Wyoming, there are no residents available to form a jury for crimes committed in this specific "

Venn diagram A Venn diagram is a widely used diagram style that shows the logical relation between set (mathematics), sets, popularized by John Venn (1834–1923) in the 1880s. The diagrams are used to teach elementary set theory, and to illustrate simple ...

" location. Similar rationale contributed to the dissolution of

Bullfrog County, Nevada Bullfrog County was an uninhabited county (United States), county in the U.S. state of Nevada created by the Nevada Legislature in 1987. It comprised a area around Yucca Mountain enclosed by Nye County, Nevada, Nye County, from which it was create ...

in 1989: because the county was unpopulated, and was not assigned to a judicial district, criminal trials could not legally be held there under Nevada state law.

Real-life examples

In March 2009, a $6.8 million jewel theft in Germany was described as being close to a perfect crime, in that despite having DNA evidence (but no other evidence), the police were unable to bring the case to court since the DNA belonged to one of a pair of

identical twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

, and faced with denials by both, it could not be proven which of the two was the criminal. Other examples of one, or possibly both, identical twins avoiding punishment include juries unable to reach a verdict in a 2004 Boston rape trial, a 2005 Houston rape trial and a 2009 Malaysia drug-smuggling trial. The infamous

1987 Opera House Heist On 19 March 1987, a group posing as Central Bureau of Investigation officers executed a fake raid on the Opera House branch of Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri & Sons Jewellers in Bombay (present-day Mumbai), Maharashtra, India. The raid was led b ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

by a group of men impersonating CBI Officers was described as a perfect crime.

References

External links

* {{cite web , title=Horizon – How to commit the perfect Murder , website=BBC TV/Radio , date=2007-04-10 , url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/perfectmurder/ , access-date=2019-09-05 Criminology Crimes

Overview

Varying definitions

Unprosecutable crime

Real-life examples

See also

References

Further reading

External links