In common usage, criminal, culprit, perpetrator, and offender are often used almost interchangeably, with slight differences in who uses them and when. * "Criminal" most often refers to someone who has been convicted of a crime in a court of law or is believed to have broken one or more laws. * "Culprit" more implies being guilty of something, but not always breaking a law, so it can also be used outside of a legal context (e.g. "She was the culprit who took the last of the coffee in the pot."). * "Perpetrator" is used when there is a specific crime and you're identifying who did it (e.g. "Police captured the suspected perpetrator of last week's robbery.") * "Offender" means basically the same thing as "criminal," but it is the preferred term between the two when being used officially (by police, lawyers, judges, reporters, etc.) "Perpetrator" and "offender" are less commonly used by people who don't work in the legal system somehow.

I think that when you say 'criminal', you are talking about a person who use to practice many criminal activities. when you say 'perpetrator' I think that's a person who killed someone, who did a terrorist attack in some country, who was the author of a big crime etc... I think that when you say 'culprit' it is a person who was just sentenced for a judge. I think when you say 'offender' you are talking about someone that offends the law, the democracy with its criminal actions. like those people that go to a strike, but instead of struggling for more expesive wages, they just go there to brake shops, stores, windows. to paint the walls with bad phrases.