Suspect

In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. By definition, a suspect is distinct from the perpetrator of the offense (perp, in dated U.S. slang), though in the United States, the word suspect is often used as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator. The term is also related to the terms defendant, the accused, person of interest, and prime suspect.

For other uses, see Suspect (disambiguation).

Terminology

In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator 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 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.^[1]

A common error in police reports is a witness description of the suspect (as a witness generally describes a perpetrator, while a mug shot 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 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.

Under the judicial systems of the U.S., once a decision is approved to arrest a suspect, or bind them over for trial, either by a prosecutor issuing an information, a grand jury issuing a true bill or indictment, or a judge issuing an arrest warrant, the suspect can then be properly called a defendant, or the accused.

Person of interest

Main article: Person of interest

To avoid clearly labeling someone as a suspect or perpetrator, police in the late 20th and early 21st century began to sometimes use the terms person of interest, possible suspect, or even possible person of interest. The term person of interest has no clear legal meaning.^{[citation needed]}

Prim suspect

Main article: Prime suspect

A prime suspect or key suspect is a person who is considered by the law enforcement agency investigating a crime to be the most likely suspect.^[2][3] The idiom prime suspect is believed to have originated in 1931.^[2] Key suspect is seen as early as 1948.^[4]

See also

• Arguido
• Criminal