SUBJECT FORENSIC SCIENCE

Paper No. and Title PAPER No. 2: Criminology and Law

Module No. and Title MODULE No. 5: Modus Operandi

Module Tag FSC_P2_M5

FORENSIC SCIENCE PAPER NO. 2: Criminology and Law

MODULE NO. 5: Modus Operandi
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Learning Outcomes

2. Introduction

3. Modus Operandi – Principle

4. The Elements of Modus Operandi

4.1. How Police Use Modus Operandi

4.2. Problems with the Modus Operandi System

5. Modus Operandi and Motive: The Difference

6. Summary

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MODULE NO. 5: Modus Operandi
 Ridge

1. Learning Outcomes

After studying this module, you shall be made acquainted with-

 What is Modus Operandi?

 Importance of Modus Operandi

2. Introduction

Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, translated as "method of operation”. The term is used
to describe one's procedure of working, particularly in the context of criminal
investigations. It is often abbreviated as M.O. In general, modus operandi is the
behaviour indispensable for the effective commission of a crime.

Douglas & Olshaker (1998) define M.O. as "what an offender has to do to

accomplish a crime."

This expression is often used in police work when talking about a crime and addressing
the techniques employed by the offenders. The use of this term is also made while
profiling the criminals, where it can help in finding clues to the offender's psychology. It
typically consists of probing the actions used by the individual(s) to accomplish the crime,
prevent its detection and facilitate escape. An accused's modus operandi can help in his
identification, apprehension, or repression, and can also be used to determine connections
between crimes.

According to Keppel (2005), the term modus operandi emerged first in 1654 in a section
called "Zootmia, because of their causes or their modus operandi" but didn't make the
leap from being a narration of animal behavior to an explanation of human behaviour
until the 1800s when the term started emerging in English utilitarian literature (e.g., Mill's
Logic). In the United States, the same term was used for a quite some time in patent law
to describe the way new inventions in machinery worked.

FORENSIC SCIENCE PAPER NO. 2: Criminology and Law

MODULE NO. 5: Modus Operandi
 By the 1890s, Scotland Yard detectives began keeping modus operandi archives so that
the known behaviour of criminals could be sketched from one district to another (Fosdick
1916). Over the years, the Scotland Yard Method of record keeping of modus operandi
files was adopted as the method in police science, and file systems attempted to record the
following fundamentals as per the benchmark set by the Scotland Yard:

1. Classword (the kind of property attacked) 


2. Entry (the point of entry)
3. Means (any implements or tools used) 

4. Object (kind of property taken) 

5. Time (the time of day or any significance about the day) 

6. Style (whether the criminal described themself as someone else to gain entry) 

7. Tale (any disclosure by the criminal about himself) 

8. Pals (whether the crime was committed with confederates) 

9. Transport (how the criminal transported himself)

10. Trademark (any unusual behaviour in connection with the crime)

Criminologists have ascertained that, no matter his specialty—burglary, auto-theft, or

embezzling—the skilled criminal is incredibly seemingly to stick to his explicit approach
of operation. If, for instance, a thief begins his career by getting into houses from the
window, he will, altogether, continue this technique for as long as he's able to work. Some
burglars become therefore hooked up to their routine that they burgle similar places or
individuals again and again. It is entirely because they feel safe in adhering to the same
modus operandi, as they feel that they would never be caught.

The construct of modus operandi then found its means into some applied and theoretical
criminology books like Sutherland's (1947) Principles of Criminology wherever the
subsequent definition was place forward: "Modus operandi is that the principle that a
criminal is probably going to use constant technique repeatedly, and any analysis or
record of that technique utilized in each serious crime can give a method of identification
in a very explicit crime."

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MODULE NO. 5: Modus Operandi
 The concept that a modus operandi may amend, evolve, or vary slightly from one crime to
another, seems to be a late twentieth century development, and might be found within the
writings of murderer profilers like in, Burgess & Ressler (1992); Vale (1997); and
Gumwood & Michaud (1999). For instance, Olshaker (1998:90) believed that "it is a
learned behavior and gets changed and formed because the criminal gets superior and
superior." One defying this subject would hold that it looks the foremost amendment,
evolution, or variation in routine would occur with the part of "entry" wherever the bad
person changes however they gain entry upon discovery of additional "hardened targets."

False amendment within the M.O. is additionally attainable, involving the criminal
seeking out a victim of a unique race (or from a unique geographical area) so as to throw
any profilers off. It is well known that if M.O. files were the sole issue police relied upon,
authorities would possibly assume they are looking for more than one criminal.

Most of the times the method of operation (or MO) is confused with a criminal's
"signature". It is usually observed that the criminal's MO may change over time, but his or
her signature will usually remain the same.

3. Modus Operandi - Principle

A criminal finds a particular technique in committing a

criminal offense effective and by making use of that
technique he will do his "job/crime" while not being
caught, and then he has no reason to vary the strategy
utilized by him. In cases of murder wherever the
assassin used the same weapon say a knife, for example
and also the same methodology of committing a
criminal offense, like stabbing in the back, shows that
there's only one perpetrator of these cases. There’s a
distinct method in however every criminal functions
and it is known as "modus operandi."



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 4. The Elements of Modus Operandi

The criminal’s modus operandi is comprises the learned behaviour that can progress and
develop over time. M.O. is dynamic and always changing with experience therefore it
becomes highly unlikely to find a connection between the cases using M.O. Modus
operandi is not static and gets refined over time as an offender becomes more
knowledgeable, sophisticated and confident. It can also become less proficient and less
dexterous over time, decompensating by the virtue of a waning mental state, etc.
In either case, an offender’s modus operandi behaviour is functional in nature. It most
often serves:

1. Protection of offender’s identity

2. Successful accomplishment of crime
3. Facilitation of offender’s escape

4.1 How Police Use Modus Operandi

Police can use the modus operandi information in apprehending the criminals and more so
in obtaining the investigative leads. The police can find recurring patterns of crime
committance that reveal a criminal's modus operandi. For instance the point of entry,
instruments used, time of the day or night when the crime was committed and means of
transportation used by the offender. By determining repetitive patterns, the police can
exclude criminals from their investigation who are known to use different methods with a
differently demonstrated modus operandi, as well as can link seemingly irrelevant cases.

4.2 Problems with the Modus Operandi System

According to criminal investigation specialists John E. Douglas and Stephen A. Douglas

(former Chief of the inquiring Support Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Academy) and Corinne Munn, the procedure conjointly features variety of drawbacks for
investigators putting an extreme amount of implication thereon.

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 As recommended by them, the procedure is dynamic; thus, its changes reinforced the
criminal's experiences. As an example, a beginner thief might use force to interrupt a
glass, fearing the noise might alert somebody, he rushes to the property. The same person,
however, having learned from his previous approach, can use quieter strategies to break-
in, to make it seem like a distinct person's act. Imprisonment is additionally a reason to
vary procedure, because the previous methodology has proved unsuccessful.

Modus Operandi is often regarded equivalent to the "success of crime". The better the
Modus Operandi, more are the chances of success in the committance of crime. It depends
on various factors like:

I. Victim/location selection, means of attack, use of weapon, planning, means of

transport
II. Valuables taken
III. Evidence left behind

Signature is considered to be equal to "needs and patterns of offender", like:

I. Wound patterns, sex acts, means of control, rituals, talk

II. Souvenirs taken
III. Evidence destroyed

The signature is usually referred to as a "trademark" or "calling card" and reflects a

compulsion on the part of criminals to travel on the far side simply committing the crime
to "express themselves" in how that reflects their temperament (not their whole
personality in some psychological sense, however one thing regarding the addictive,
repetitive, or compulsion-oriented a part of their character). The core of a signature can
never amend (Keppel 2005), though it can worsen over time (e.g., grievance of the victim
might increase from victim to victim). Stephen A. Douglas et al. (1992) regard the
signature as communicative of violent fantasies that progress incrementally over time.

FORENSIC SCIENCE PAPER NO. 2: Criminology and Law

MODULE NO. 5: Modus Operandi
 5. Modus Operandi and Motive: The Difference

Modus operandi and motive are two distinct things.

A criminal is compelled to commit a specific crime for a specific reason; that reason, be it
cash, anger, revenge, power or lust, is his motive. However motive is a way lot
sophisticated than simply providing a 'reason' why a criminal commits a criminal offense.

For example, even as each individual has his own signature that is proven on paper once
they sign their name; similarly a criminal can have a motive with behavior that is a
'signature' to them alone.

Fig 1: Reasons for committing crime

So while a murderer in New York may kill out of anger, and another murderer in Atlanta
does the same thing, they will do it differently, with different appealing 'signature
behavior.' Their motive will meet a requisite they have say, an emotional or psychological
want. But neither their motive nor their signature behavior should be puzzled with the
technique they use to commit their criminality. This is because crime methods are known
as modus operandi (or "MO"): they have nothing to do with crime motive.

Modus Operandi (MO): The Method a Criminal Uses to Commit a Crime

If a criminal is inspired by greed to commit robbery, one of his signature behaviors while
at the crime scene could include the slashing of any particular furniture item in the home.

FORENSIC SCIENCE PAPER NO. 2: Criminology and Law

MODULE NO. 5: Modus Operandi
 He might be annoyed at a parent or spouse about that particular furniture item and an
argument that resulted about it, so he may act out in retaliation at each of his robbery
crime scenes by slashing that particular furniture item. This 'signature' would just be a
supplementary aspect of his original motive: a desire to gain money from stealing.

Other burglars would probably not be doing this in the same city, so at each of this
burglar's crime scenes he is leaving police an insight into his motivation. But none of this
is his modus operandi, since none of it is obligatory for the commission of the offence of
burglary.

In other words, he doesn't have to slash that furniture item in order to burglarize the
houses. So anything a criminal doesn't have to do to commit his crime will not be
considered part of his "MO".

Modus operandi pertains only to the method used to commit a crime. It does not have
anything to do with the motive that drives the criminal or the signatures he might use
during the crime, unless they overlap with his MO somehow.

Example of a Modus Operandi

The MO of a particular burglar could be that during the burglary he wears a utility
repairman's outfit to lend credibility for why he is in the neighbourhood. He would do this
in case someone was to question him. This particular MO would help him to evade
capture, since it would be assumed he was present for a legitimate reason.

Thus, this criminal's motive would be money; his signature behaviour would be slashing
the furniture item, and his MO would be wearing the utility company uniform when
committing the crime.

FORENSIC SCIENCE PAPER NO. 2: Criminology and Law

MODULE NO. 5: Modus Operandi
 6. Summary

 Modus Operandi is a process in which an action or procedure is executed by a

person as a matter of habits, etc.
 Modus operandi of crime aids to identify the individual behind such crime as
different individuals have their own exclusive way of doing things or executing
crimes.
 Modus operandi is the conduct, which is deemed necessary for the effective
commission of a crime. Douglas & Olshaker (1998) define M.O. as "what an
offender has to do to accomplish a crime."
 This expression is often used in police work when talking about a crime and
addressing the techniques employed by the offenders. The use of this term is also
made while profiling the criminals, where it can help in finding clues to the
offender's psychology. It typically consists of probing the actions used by the
individual(s) to accomplish the crime, prevent its detection and/or facilitate
escape. An accused's modus operandi can help in his identification, apprehension,
or repression, and can also be used to determine connections between crimes.
 It is also used in criminal profiling, where it can help in finding clues to the
offender's psychology
 Police can use the modus operandi information in apprehending the criminals and
more so in obtaining the investigative leads.
 The criminal’s modus operandi comprises the learned behavior that can progress
and develop over time.
 M.O. is dynamic and always changing with experience therefore it becomes highly
unlikely to find a connection between the cases using M.O. Modus operandi is not
static and gets refined over time as an offender becomes more knowledgeable,
sophisticated and confident. It can also become less proficient and less dexterous
over time, decompensating by the virtue of a waning mental state etc.

FORENSIC SCIENCE PAPER NO. 2: Criminology and Law

MODULE NO. 5: Modus Operandi