犯 - A CRIMINAL Dog

Readings & Meanings:

おか（す）

ハン

to commit,violate, an offense

Common Usage:

犯人

防犯

犯す

Examples:

連続殺人事件の犯人がようやく捕まった。

防犯対策を整える。

罪を犯した者はその責任をとらなければならない。

その女子高生は担任の先生に犯され自殺した。

Translations:

They finally caught the perpetrator in the serial murder case.

I'm preparing the crime-prevention measures.

The person who did the deed must take responsibility for it.

That high school student was raped by her homeroom teacher and committed suicide.

Radical:

This is so weird.

We have here an Inu radical, or Kemono-hen, on the left. That unsteady-looking bit on the left is actually 犬, the kanji for dog. Think of it as a pictograph of a dog on its hind legs.

On the right, we have an enclosure that has been broken. A dog out of its cage. An escaped prisoner. A criminal.

Great. Except that the kanji for cat is 猫.

Dogs and cats, living together! Mass hysteria!

犬 can also generalize and signify a general beast. But still, it's funny to think that the Japanese kanji for cat contains a dog.

References:

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/indices/radindex.html
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/node/kanji/o.htm