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.
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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.
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.