The word 罪犯 is formed by combining two meaningful characters into a single conceptual unit: 罪 (zuì), which represents "crime" or "guilt", and 犯 (fàn), which signifies "to commit" or "offender". Their union is not merely sequential but fuses into a composite idea where one who commits (犯) a crime (罪) is logically defined as a "criminal". It’s a direct and efficient semantic construction where the relationship between the parts creates a new, specific whole, the person defined by the act.