(Phys.org)—This much everyone knows: As technologies break new ground in speed and performance, mischief-makers also break new ground in finding ways to disrupt. Now an academic research group has warned a U.S. government ...
(Phys.org)—Researchers from the Max Planck institute have been conducting experiments with chimpanzees that appear to indicate that the apes are not willing to punish other chimps when witnessing them doing something "bad" ...
Experts have devised a novel approach to selecting photos for police lineups that helps witnesses identify culprits more reliably.
Social Sciences
Feb 15, 2021
0
103
A new computer algorithm can analyze the footwear marks left at a crime scene according to clusters of footwear types, makes and tread patterns even if the imprint recorded by crime scene investigators is distorted or only ...
Computer Sciences
Oct 26, 2012
0
0
As any crime show buff can tell you, DNA evidence identifies a victim's remains, fingers the guilty, and sets the innocent free. But in reality, the processing of forensic DNA evidence takes much longer than a 60-minute primetime ...
Biotechnology
Apr 27, 2012
0
0
A portable device can detect the presence of the anthrax bacterium in about one hour from a sample containing as few as 40 microscopic spores, report Cornell and University of Albany researchers who invented it. The device ...
Bio & Medicine
Aug 1, 2011
0
0
Sampling just a few genes can reveal not only the "lifestyle" of marine microbes but of their entire environments, new research suggests.
Biotechnology
Sep 7, 2009
0
0
In today's climate of global political tensions and polarization, workplaces are filled with conflicting viewpoints. When employees hold political identities and perspectives that do not align with their co-workers, they ...
Social Sciences
Oct 26, 2023
0
9
According to a recent research report, distance, lighting and facial masking are critical factors affecting the reliability of eyewitness identification. Researchers at Åbo Akademi University and New York University Shanghai, ...
Social Sciences
Oct 12, 2023
0
1
Managers spend much of their time managing conflict and struggle to know how to respond when a "he said, she said" workplace dispute occurs. However, a new study shows how employees' intuitive moral values might give rise ...
Social Sciences
Mar 20, 2023
27
20
In the parlance of criminal justice, a suspect is a known person suspected of committing a crime.
Police and reporters 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.
A common error in police reports is a witness description of the suspect (as a witness generally describes the perpetrator, while a mug shot is of the 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 are surely looking for the perpetrator, and very often it is impossible to tell from such a police report whether there is a suspect or not.
Possibly because of the misuse of suspect to mean perpetrator, police have begun to use person of interest, possible suspect, and even possible person of interest, to mean suspect.
Under the judicial systems of the U.S., once a decision is approved to arrest a suspect, or bind him 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. Only after being convicted is the suspect properly called the perpetrator.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
