TRIAL BY QUESTIONS?
Have you ever asked yourself if there has even been such a thing as a perfect crime?
I think we could ask that question of just about any one and get affirmative replies all along the way, because it is one problem which everyone has wondered about at one time or another. It is a bit of speculation which has lured some people we have known to try to see how it works in real life.
I say “No.” I don't think there can be a perfect crime and here are some of my reasons for thinking that way.
First, must set up some ground rules for our discussion. Is that agreeable with you? Fine. If we can agree just what make a crime a crime we are well on our way.
We all tend to make us a wide variety of terms to describe crime. Would you agree with me on such a definition which, i think, has all the simplicity and directness needed: Crime is...“an offense against society.” Doesn't that pretty well cover the entire subject in a simple straightforward manner?
O, thus supplied with a simple definition which seems to meet with general approval, let's continue to examine the possibility of someone committing perfect crime. Shall we start with just a small one, perhaps -a theft. Will that do? We can save major embezzlements and murders until we get our rules firmly in mind.
A person or person has, we find, stolen a valued watch, some jewels and a secret formula for an unknown product. We heard about this morning, but it happened a month before on the very night the owner had left for a business trip to Peru. The incident was unknown until the owner returned from South America. It was the moment she relayed that vital information to someone else that the act – a month old – became a crime. That was when it became an offense against society. It was discovered - which indicates it was imperfectly planned or executed. The crime was never solved. Had the owner died or been killed in Peru the stolen goods would not have been known to have existed.
Once a crime known to be an offense against so society it exhibits a weakness – a flaw.
There can be no such thing as a perfect crime.
A.L.M. August 20, 2005 [c402wds]
