Perfect crime is a colloquial term used in law and fiction (principally crime fiction) to characterize crimes that are undetected, unattributed to a perpetrator, or else unsolved as a kind of technical achievement —one which makes the crime an ostensibly inconsequential act for the perpetrator. In certain contexts, the concept of perfect crime is limited to just undetected crimes; if an event is ever identified as a crime, some investigators say it can not be called 'perfect'. [1] A perfect crime should be distinguished from one that has merely not been solved yet or where everyday chance or procedural matters frustrate a conviction. There is an element that the crime is (or appears likely to be) unable to be resolved.

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Overview

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Use of the term typically indicates an attribution of "positive" qualities to the perpetrator —qualities such as intelligence, planning, and skill. The perpetrator and those who may know of the crime may think that the perpetrator can escape all consequences, including trials, judgments, and punishments.

In certain colloquial usage, the term can also be used to characterize an "unknown crime" —i.e. , one that remains undetected after commission. Similarly, in procedural law, some scenarios lack sufficient evidence to determine conclusively if any crime has in fact been committed, preventing these from becoming active criminal investigations or cases.

In traditional usage, the term does not include crimes that merely have not yet been solved. Many crimes go unsolved due to insufficient attention, lack of police resources, or to investigator inexpertise or incompetence in overlooking vital evidence. For example, in the well-known case of Jack the Ripper, plenty of evidence was left at the crime scenes, but the crimes were never solved. As used by some criminologists and others who study criminal investigations (including mystery writers), a perfect crime goes unsolved not because of incompetence in the investigation, but because of the cleverness and skill of the criminal. ^[2] I.e. , the defining factor is the primary causative influence of the criminal's ability to avoid investigation and reprisal, and not so much the ability of the investigating authority to perform its duties.

Since evidence must be matched to find the culprit, the best candidate to commit a perfect crime would apparently be completely disassociated from the circle of suspects normally questioned by police (friends, family, business colleagues, etc.). In practice, however, those who commit serious crimes are usually linked to the victim in some way, and police experience usually allows swift identification of the likeliest suspects. A crime based on a chance meeting, such as a rape, some murders, or a mugging, can go undetected if no connection remains; however, a rapist will most likely leave his DNA (e.g. , in the form of semen) and sustain minor injuries ^[3], which might indicate his guilt; a mugger might be found with the victim's belongings. Moreover, the police have the fingerprints and DNA of convicted felons on file. A criminal may bring himself to the attention of the police by spending stolen money too freely or bragging about the crime.

Would-be perfect crimes are a popular subject in crime fiction and movies. They include Double Indemnity , Strangers on a Train , The Postman Always Rings Twice , Witness for the Prosecution , and Dial M for Murder .

Varying definitions

A murder committed by somebody who had never before met the victim, has no criminal record, steals nothing, and tells no one might be a perfect crime. According to criminologists and scientists, this casual definition of perfect crime exists. Another possibility is that a crime might be committed in an area of high public traffic, where DNA from a wide variety of people is present, making the sifting of evidence akin to 'finding a needle in a haystack'. ^[4]

An intentional killing in which the death is never identified as murder is an example of one of the more rigorous definitions of perfect crime. Other criminologists narrow the range to only those crimes that are not detected at all. ^[5] By definition, it can never be known if such perfect crimes exist. ^[6] Many "close calls" have been observed, however, enough to make investigators aware of the possibility of a perfect crime .

Real life examples

Some crimes such as the Black Dahlia murder, the Zodiac murders of the late 1960s, the Tylenol scare of 1982, the Cleveland Torso Murderer and the Diane Suzuki case of 1985 are referred to as perfect, but the possibility always remains that a culprit will ultimately be identified. Airplane hijacking along with a parachute escape, such as in the case of D. B. Cooper, may also qualify as a perfect crime.

In March 2009, a jewel theft was described as being close to a perfect crime, in that despite having DNA evidence the police were unable to bring the case to court since the DNA belonged to one of a pair of identical twins, and faced with denials by both, it could not be proven which of the two was the criminal. ^[7]

References

1. Timmermans, Stefan. ''Postmortem: how medical examiners explain suspicious deaths'', University of Chicago Press, 2006, p. 157. ISBN 0226803988
2. Murder By The Bay: Historic Homicide in and about the City of San Francisco
3. Rape and Sexual Assault: Management & Intervention
4. How to commit the perfect murder
5. Vedder, Clyde Bennett. ''Criminology: a book of readings'', Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1953, p. 44. "Detectives have said that they have never seen a perfect crime. This is because the only perfect crimes are those in which no one even suspects..."
6. ''The Journal of criminal law, criminology and police science,'' p. 141, 1962. Northwestern University School of Law, American Society of Criminology, Illinois Academy of Criminology, International Association of Arson Investigators, National District Attorneys Association, National Association of County and Prosecuting Attorneys, Society for the Advancement of Criminology, JSTOR, National Association of Defense Lawyers in Criminal Cases.
7. Despite DNA Evidence, Twins Charged in Heist Go Free