perpetrator
n.someone who does something wrong or illegal. You usually hear this word in news stories about crimes.
n.a person who carries out a harmful, illegal, or immoral act. Often used in legal or journalistic contexts to identify the actor without naming them.
“The police are still searching for the perpetrator.”
“Witnesses were asked to provide a description of the perpetrator to help the investigators identify a suspect.”
“Criminologists often study the background of the perpetrator to understand the systemic factors that might have contributed to the commission of the offense.”
Commonly abbreviated to 'perp' in informal police jargon; typically takes the preposition 'of' when linked to a specific crime.
“A memorial in Washington DC for the second world war was vandalized with bubbly soap and graffiti on Thursday, prompting vows from the US government to find the perpetrator.”
“Hoping to dissolve his shame, one helpful contact avers that one in six domestic abuse cases involve a female perpetrator and male victim.”
Common in health and culture writing
From Latin perpetrātor. By surface analysis, perpetrate + -or.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.