A ''modus operandi'' (often shortened to M.O.) is someone's

habits A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also more generally. It is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

phrase, approximately translated as "mode (or manner) of operating".

Term

The term is often used in police work when discussing

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

and addressing the methods employed by

criminals In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

. It is also used in

criminal profiling Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is an investigative strategy used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely suspects and has been used by investigators to link cases that may have been committed by the same perpetrator ...

, where it can help in finding clues to the offender's

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

. It largely consists of examining the actions used by the individuals to execute the crime, prevent its detection and facilitate escape.Douglas, J. E. and A. W. Burgess, A. G. Burgess, R. K. Ressler. ''Crime classification manual'' (

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, in p ...

, 2006) , p. 19-21. A suspect's ''modus operandi'' can assist in their identification, apprehension, or repression, and can also be used to determine links between crimes.Berg, B.L. ''Criminal Investigation'' (

McGraw Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...

, 2008) In business, ''modus operandi'' is used to describe a firm's preferred means of executing business and interacting with other firms.

Plural

The plural is (rather than ). The word is a

gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable ...

in the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

, "of operating"; gerunds can never be pluralised in Latin, as opposed to gerundives. When a noun with an attribute in the genitive is pluralised, only the head noun normally changes, just as in English with "of": "a fact of life, two facts of life" (unlike, for instance, in French).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Modus Operandi Criminal investigation Criminology Latin words and phrases Offender profiling

Term

Plural

See also

References

Further reading

External links