Suspect
In the parlance of criminal justice, a suspect is a known person suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often incorrectly use the word suspect when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp for short). The perpetrator is the robber, assailant, counterfeiter, etc. --the person who actually 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 actually 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.
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Famous quotes containing the word suspect:
“Those who are incapable of commiting great crimes will not easily suspect others of doing so.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“I suspect there isn’t an actor alive who was able to truthfully answer his family’s questions after his first day’s activity in his future profession.”
—Simone Signoret (1921–1985)
“No Vice or Wickedness, which People fall into from Indulgence to Desires which are natural to all, ought to place them below the Compassion of the virtuous Part of the World; which indeed often makes me a little apt to suspect the Sincerity of their Virtue, who are too warmly provoked at other Peoples personal Sins.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)