Modus Operandi (Jimmy Barnes Album) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
A (often shortened to M.O. or MO) is an individual'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.
A 1903 paper in the ''American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, ...
of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as .
Term
The term is often used in police work when discussing criminology">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, definiti ...
and addressing the methods employed by criminals. It is also used in offender profiling, criminal profiling, where it can help in finding clues to the offender's psychology. 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 corporation, multinational Publishing, publishing company that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company was founded in 1807 and pr ...
, 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.
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 .
The word is a
gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin ''gerundium,'' meaning "which is ...
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 ca ...
, "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
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
).
See also
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
Further reading
* Levinson, D. ''Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment'' (SAGE, 2002). .
* Carlo, P. ''The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez'' (Pinnacle Books 1996). .
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Modus Operandi
Criminal investigation
Criminology
Latin words and phrases
Offender profiling