[Spridgets] "Perpetrators"? No, criminals!

[Hal Faulkner]

Buster said, "the favored term is "suspects"."

I have even heard a policeman on TV describing a criminal act for which no
one had yet been arrested say that  the "alleged suspects" escaped.
However, there is a distinction between "suspect and perpetrator: the
"suspect" is the person who you think committed a crime, the perpetrator is
the person who actually committed the crime, identified or not.  If you
"suspect" that, say, a Frank C. obtained a chrome headlight ring in an
extra-legal manner, he would be a "suspect."  The person who actually took
the chrome headlight ring (whether Frank or someone else) would, of course,
be the perpetrator.  Please note that this is a fictitious scenario used
only to illustrate a point of grammar and that any similarities to persons
or events that may have actually taken place is entirely coincidental.