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In law enforcement jargon, asuspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing acrime. Police and reporters in theUnited States often use the wordsuspect as a jargon when referring to theperpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U.S. 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 notknown 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.[1]
A common error inpolice reports is awitness description of the suspect (as a witness generally describes a perpetrator, while amug shot is of a suspect). Frequently it is stated that police are looking for the suspect, when there is no suspect; the policecould be looking for a suspect, but they should ultimately be looking for the perpetrator, and very often it is impossible to tell from such a police report whether there is a suspect or not.
To avoid clearly labeling someone as a "suspect" or "perpetrator", police in the late 20th and early 21st century began to sometimes use the termperson of interest,possible suspect, or evenpossible person of interest. The term "person of interest" has no clear legal meaning.[citation needed]
Under the judicial systems of the U.S., once a decision is approved toarrest a suspect, or bind them over fortrial, either by aprosecutor issuing aninformation, agrand jury issuing atrue bill orindictment, or ajudge issuing anarrest warrant, the suspect can then be properly called adefendant, orthe accused.
Suspect Suspicious and Suspect.
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