In
law enforcement jargon Law enforcement personnel use a large body of acronyms, abbreviations, codes and slang to provide quick concise descriptions of people, places, property and situations, in both spoken and written communication.
References
External links
Menlo P ...
, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...
. Police and reporters in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated US slang). However, in official definition, the perpetrator is the robber, assailant,
counterfeiter, etc.—the person who 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 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.
A common error in
police report
In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...
s is a
witness
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 ...
description of the suspect (as a witness generally describes a perpetrator, while a
mug shot
A mug shot or mugshot (an informal term for police photograph or booking photograph) is a photographic portrait of a person from the shoulders up, typically taken after a person is arrested. The original purpose of the mug shot was to allow law ...
is of a suspect). Frequently it is stated that police are looking for the suspect, when there is no suspect; the police ''could'' be looking for a suspect, but they are surely looking for the perpetrator, and very often it is impossible to tell from such a police report whether there is a suspect or not.
Possibly because of the misuse of "suspect" to mean "perpetrator", police in the late 20th and early 21st century began to use
person of interest, possible suspect, and even possible person of interest, to mean suspect.
Under the judicial systems of the U.S., once a decision is approved to
arrest a suspect, or bind him over for
trial
In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal ...
, either by a
prosecutor issuing an
information
Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...
, a
grand jury issuing a
true bill
True most commonly refers to truth, the state of being in congruence with fact or reality.
True may also refer to:
Places
* True, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States
* True, Wisconsin, a town in the United States
* ...
or
indictment
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of a ...
, or a
judge issuing an
arrest warrant, the suspect can then be properly called a
defendant, or the accused. Only after being
convicted
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 co ...
is the suspect properly called the perpetrator.
See also
*
Arguido
*
Criminal
*
Perp walk
References
'
Suspect'' Suspicious and Suspect.
{{Criminal procedure
Law enforcement terminology
Criminals by status