犯人
はんにん · hannin · JLPT N3 · noun
wrongdoer
🚔 犯人 = offend (犯) + person (人): the person who committed the offence
犯 means to commit a crime or break a rule, as in 犯罪 (hanzai, crime). Add 人 (nin, person) and you get the one who did it. Same pattern as 恋人 (lover) or 友人 (friend).
犯 — dog radical 犭 + 㔾 (kneeling person)
Originally a semantic-phonetic compound: the dog radical 犭 suggested an animal attacking, while 㔾 (a kneeling figure) hinted at the sound and the idea of submission or transgression. The meaning broadened from 'a beast attacking a person' to 'to violate, offend, commit (a crime),' giving modern senses like 'criminal' and 'to infringe.'
人 — pictograph of a standing person
人 is a pictograph showing a person viewed from the side, with two strokes representing the legs and torso of a standing human. In oracle bone script it clearly depicted a figure leaning slightly forward. The meaning has remained 'person' or 'human' throughout its history.