pearl keeps crashing my system/imac

Perl isn't expected to crash OS X, but without knowing what the particular Perl script is doing...?

It's also possible (though not very likely) that the Perl script is triggering an unrelated hardware or software problem specific to your system.

Do you have some more details on the Perl script, or the contents of the script?

What OS X version?

In addiotn to the OS X version, are you using the Perl that is included with OS X or have you installed a different version of Perl?

What are the steps you take to run the script?

Where did you get the script?

Could you post the source code if short or post a link to the source code.