Editing Suspect (section)

{{Short description|Person accused or suspected of committing a crime}}
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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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jul/9707wdct.htm |title=Word Court |date=July 1997 |publisher=Theatlantic.com |access-date=2012-03-19}}</ref>

A common error in [[Complaint|police report]]s 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 {{em|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.

To avoid clearly labeling someone as a "suspect" or "perpetrator", police in the late 20th and early 21st century began to sometimes use the term ''[[person of interest]]'', ''possible suspect'', or even ''possible person of interest''. The term "person of interest" has no clear legal meaning.{{cn|date=August 2020}}

Under the judicial systems of the U.S., once a decision is approved to [[arrest]] a suspect, or bind them over for [[trial (law)|trial]], either by a [[prosecutor]] issuing an [[Information (formal criminal charge)|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''.