Wiktionary
n. (context colloquial English) A crime that is undetected, unattributed to a perpetrator, or otherwise unsolved.
Wikipedia
Perfect crime is a colloquial term used in law and fiction (especially 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".
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.
Perfect crime is a crime committed with sufficient planning and skill that no evidence is apparent, and the culprit cannot be traced.
Perfect crime or perfect crimes may also refer to:
Perfect Crime is a 1987 murder mystery/thriller play 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 11,000 performances.
Perfect Crime is the second studio album by Japanese recording artist Mai Kuraki. It was released on July 4, 2001.
Usage examples of "perfect crime".
Bad timing, he reckoned and began writing crime stories in which the perfect crime always came undone because of a lack of attention to small details and deep-seated psychological flaws.
No, the perfect crime was the one you never discovered, the murder victim you never found, the stolen funds missed by bad accounting procedures, the espionage never discovered.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair, smiling, contemplating this perfect crime.
To escape after the perfect crime you'd want the perfect passports.
Because that was what you did when you committed the perfect crime.
And he's an amateur, even if an inspired amateur, and it is a curious fact that an amateur, once he's carried out one crime successfully, almost always tries to copy himself as if he alone has the secret of a perfect crime.