The word 犯人 is formed by combining two characters: 犯, which carries the core meaning of "to violate" or "to commit (a crime/offense)", and 人, which means "person". The concept is constructed semantically by placing the defining action or characteristic (犯) before the general category (人), thereby creating a compound that literally means "a person who violates" and is understood specifically as "prisoner" or "criminal". It is a direct conceptual fusion where the modifier defines the nature of the person.