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Term

The term is often used in police work when discussing crime and addressing the methods employed by criminals. It is also used in criminal profiling,² where it can help in finding clues to the offender's psychology.³ It largely consists of examining the actions used by the individuals to execute the crime, prevent its detection and facilitate escape.⁴ A suspect's modus operandi can assist in their identification, apprehension, or repression, and can also be used to determine links between crimes.⁵

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 modi operandi.⁶⁷ The word operandi is a gerund in the genitive case, "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, les modes opératoires in French).

See also

• Criminology – Study of crime and criminal actions/behavior
• John E. Douglas – American criminal profiler (born 1945)
• Latin phrases
• Modus ponens – Rule of logical inference
• Modus tollens – Rule of logical inference
• Modus vivendi – Arrangement that allows conflicting parties to coexist in peace
• Signature crime – crime which exhibits characteristics unique to an offender's psychologyPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback

Further reading

• Levinson, D. Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment (SAGE, 2002). ISBN 0-7619-2258-X.
• Carlo, P. The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez (Pinnacle Books 1996). ISBN 0-7860-1362-1.

External links

• The dictionary definition of modus operandi at Wiktionary

References

1. Douglas, J. E. and A. W. Burgess, A. G. Burgess, R. K. Ressler. Crime classification manual (John Wiley & Sons, 2006) ISBN 0-7879-8501-5, p. 19-21. /wiki/John_Wiley_%26_Sons ↩

2. Vronsky, R. Serial Killers (Berkley Books, 2004) ISBN 0-425-19640-2, p. 412. /wiki/Berkley_Books ↩

3. Hazelwood, R. R, A. W. Burgess, Practical Aspects of Rape Investigation, (CRC Press, 2001) ISBN 0-8493-0076-2, p. 517. /wiki/CRC_Press ↩

4. Douglas, J. E. and A. W. Burgess, A. G. Burgess, R. K. Ressler. Crime classification manual (John Wiley & Sons, 2006) ISBN 0-7879-8501-5, p. 19-21. /wiki/John_Wiley_%26_Sons ↩

5. Berg, B.L. Criminal Investigation (McGraw Hill, 2008) ISBN 978-0-07-340124-9 /wiki/McGraw_Hill ↩

6. "modus operandi". merriam-webster.com. Merriam–Webster. Retrieved 5 December 2023. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/modus%20operandi ↩

7. Barber, Katherine, ed. (2004). "modus operandi". The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195418163. Retrieved 6 April 2020. 9780195418163 ↩