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 on the part of 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 cannot 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 solved.
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Overview [link]
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.
Would-be perfect crimes are a popular subject in crime fiction and movies. They include Rope, Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Witness for the Prosecution, and Dial M for Murder.
Varying definitions [link]
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'.[3]
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.[1] Other criminologists narrow the range to only those crimes that are not detected at all.[4] By definition, it can never be known if such perfect crimes exist.[4][5] Many "close calls" have been observed, however—enough to make investigators aware of the possibility of a perfect crime.[4]
Real life examples [link]
Some crimes such as the Black Dahlia murder, the Zodiac murders of the late 1960s, the Tylenol scare of 1982, the Cleveland Torso Murderer, the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey, 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.[6]
See also [link]
- Locked room mystery
- Leopold and Loeb — two wealthy University of Chicago students who, motivated by their desire to commit a perfect crime, murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924, and were immediately caught and sentenced to life imprisonment
- Perfect murder (fiction)
- Vicinage Clause#The perfect crime?
References [link]
- ^ a b Timmermans, Stefan. Postmortem: how medical examiners explain suspicious deaths, University of Chicago Press, 2006, p. 157. ISBN 0-226-80398-8
- ^ Francis, Charles (page 162; 2005; ISBN 1-884995-46-2). Murder By The Bay: Historic Homicide in and about the City of San Francisco. Quill Driver Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=Lfw1vdIQ51oC&dq=criminology+%22perfect+crime%22. Retrieved 2007-10-28.
- ^ "How to commit the perfect murder". Horizon. season 2007. 2007-05-08.
- ^ a b c 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..."
- ^ 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.
- ^ Himmelreich, Claudia (March 23, 2009). "Despite DNA Evidence, Twins Charged in Heist Go Free". Time. https://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1887111,00.html. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
Further reading [link]
- Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Deaths by Timmermans, Stefan. 380 pages, University of Chicago press; ISBN 978-0-226-80398-2.
- The Perfect Crime and How To Commit It by Jekel, Dr. Pamela L. Jekel; Publisher: Paladin Press Boulder, CO 1982; ISBN 0-87364-237-6.
- Practical Crime Scene Processing and Investigation by Ross M. Gardner; 2004 CRC Press, ISBN 0-8493-2043-7.
External links [link]
https://wn.com/Perfect_crime
Perfect crime (disambiguation)
Perfect crime or perfect crimes may refer to:
Film TV and theatre
Music
Albums
Songs
Perfect Crime (play)
Perfect Crime is a 1987 Off Broadway play in the murder mystery/thriller genre written by Warren Manzi. It tells the story of Margaret Thorne Brent, a Connecticut psychiatrist and potential cold-blooded killer who may have committed "the perfect crime." When her wealthy husband, W. Harrison Brent, turns up dead, she gets caught in the middle of a terrifying game of cat and mouse with her deranged patient, Lionel McAuley, and Inspector Ascher, the handsome but duplicitous investigator assigned to the case.
Perfect Crime is the longest-running play in New York City history, with over 10,000 performances.
Background
The play has been called "an urban legend" by New York Times critic Jason Zinoman because of its long and storied history. Perfect Crime was originally optioned for Broadway in 1980, just after author Manzi graduated from the Yale School of Drama. At age 25, Manzi, then starring as Mozart in Amadeus on Broadway, was the youngest American author ever to have a play optioned for Broadway. After producer Morton Gottlieb wanted to change the play's title to Guilty Hands, Manzi lost interest and went to Hollywood to write screenplays, including one of the many versions of the film Clue. The play ultimately began its life several years later in 1987, in Greenwich Village at the Courtyard Playhouse on Grove Street, produced by the Actors Collective, a not-for-profit theater company whose artistic director was Warren Manzi. Commercial producer Armand Hyatt moved the show immediately after its four-week limited run to an Off-Broadway venue.
Perfect Crime (album)
Perfect Crime is the second studio album by Japanese recording artist Mai Kuraki. It was released on July 4, 2001.
Background
Kuraki stated that despite being completely absorbed in the production of her first album, Delicious Way, when compared to Perfect Crime, the latter felt like it had been created with more diligence and character that listening to it was similar to watching a film.
Chart performance
Perfect Crime debuted at number-one with 800,210 copies sold making it Kuraki's second number-one debut. The album stayed on the Oricon albums chart for a total of 17 weeks, of which the album spent 6 in the top 10, non-consecutively.Perfect Crime was the 12th best selling album of 2001.
Track listing
All lyrics written by Mai Kuraki except tracks 6 (Kuraki/Michael Africk), track 8 (Kuraki/Keith Bazzle) and track 9 (Kuraki/Yoko Black. Stone).
