can a thing be a culprit?

[ostap77]

"The article of a famous journalist was the culprit of a huge scandal." OK?

[Route21]

Hi ostap77

The dictionaries I've checked relate "culprit" to a person, rather than a thing, as you say.

That having been said, though, we sometimes tend to personify objects.

An example might be when investigating the cause of, say, a plane crash, the investigators may well pinpoint the cause to a small, detailed component that failed. It's highly likely that they would say that they had "found the culprit".

Hope this helps
R21

PS I wouldn't personally have used the word "culprit" in your example - I would have more likely said "trigger", as it appears to have been a natural follow-on rather than something that was found out later following an investigation.