päätekijää
Päätekijä is a Finnish noun meaning the principal offender or primary actor in a crime, or more generally the main creator or driving force behind a project. The word is a compound of pää- meaning "main" or "chief" and tekijä meaning "doer, maker." In a criminal context, päätekijä refers to the person who directly commits the criminal act or who bears the primary responsibility for the offense. The term is typically used in legal discussions and court rulings. It is distinguished from osallinen (an accomplice) and from järjestäjä (the organizer or instigator) and other participants, who may have different levels of liability according to the law.
In non-criminal contexts, päätekijä can be used metaphorically to denote the main creator, author, or driving
The form päätekijää is the partitive singular; inflection follows Finnish noun declension patterns. The term can
Etymology: from pää- "main, chief" and tekijä "maker, doer".