Suspect is the name of a person who is thought to have committed a criminal act on the basis of facts or circumstances. A suspect is generally a person, but may also be an animal or an object: a thief, an insect, or even the weather can be a suspect. In most judicial systems, once a decision has been made to arrest the suspect or bind them over for trial (by a prosecutor issuing an information, a grand jury issuing a true bill or indictment, or a judge issuing an arrest warrant), they are then properly referred to as a defendant. The term perpetrator is more often used for people who are convicted or found guilty of a crime.
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