Perfect crime

A perfect crime is a crime committed with sufficient planning and skill that no evidence is apparent, and the culprit cannot be traced. The term can also refer to a crime that remains undetected after commission, or sufficiently unsubstantiated to prevent active investigation, so that nobody knows conclusively if the crime has in fact been committed.

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.cite web
last =Francis
first =Charles
publisher=Quill Driver Books
title=Murder By The Bay: Historic Homicide in and about the City of San Francisco
date=page 162; 2005; ISBN 1884995462
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=Lfw1vdIQ51oC&dq=criminology+%22perfect+crime%22
accessdate=2007-10-28] 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, murder or 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 [cite book |author = Carmen Germaine Warner |title = Rape and Sexual Assault: Management & Intervention |publisher = Aspen Systems Corp. |date = 1980 |pages = 86 |isbn = 0894431722] , 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. Many criminals spend stolen money too freely or brag about their crimes.Fact|date=October 2007

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 criminalists and scientists, perfect crimes do exist. Similarly, criminals are able to keep their identities concealed by performing their crimes in areas of high public traffic, where DNA from a wide variety of people is present, therefore creating the impression of 'finding a needle in a haystack'. [cite episode | title = How to commit the perfect murder | episodelink = | series = Horizon | serieslink = | airdate = 2007-05-08 | season = 2007 | number = ]

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".

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. Air hijacking along with a parachute escape, such as in the case of D.B. Cooper, may also qualify as a perfect crime.

References

Further reading

*"Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Deaths" by Timmermans, Stefan. 380 pages, University of Chicago press; ISBN 9780226803982.
*"The Perfect Crime and How To Commit It" by Jekel, Dr. Pamela L. Jekel; Publisher: Paladin Press Boulder, CO 1982; ISBN 0873642376.
*"Practical Crime Scene Processing and Investigation" by Ross M. Gardner; 2004 CRC Press, ISBN 0849320437.

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/perfectmurder/ BBC - Horizon - How to commit the perfect murder]
* [http://www.perfect-crime.com Perfect Crime - the longest-running play in NYC history]
* [http://crimemagazine.com/04/leopoldloeb,0229.htm Leopold and Loeb's Perfect Crime]
* [http://www.hinduonnet.com/jobs/0011/05220021.htm "A Revealing Science" (a brief overview of forensic scientists)]