# Pattern-of-Life Analysis
**Entity class:** Analytical method
**Domain:** Intelligence / surveillance / investigations
**Maturity:** Developed
## Definition
**Pattern-of-life analysis** reconstructs recurring activities and deviations across time and place. Inputs may include travel, communication, transactions, device events, locations, encounters, work routines, and relationships. Its purpose is to establish a temporal baseline and identify behavior that warrants further explanation.
A credit-card transaction may contribute a time-and-place observation, but merchant, processor, issuer, payment network, and government reporting systems hold different portions of the record. An anomaly is not guilt: ordinary life produces irregularity, shared devices, travel changes, and ambiguous co-location.
## Relationships
- **supports:** [[wiki/Counterterrorism Intelligence|Counterterrorism Intelligence]].
- **data layers:** [[wiki/Financial Transaction Data|Financial Transaction Data]], [[wiki/SIGINT|SIGINT]], and [[wiki/OSINT|OSINT]].
- **network counterpart:** [[wiki/Identity and Relationship Analysis|Identity and Relationship Analysis]].
- **temporal representation:** [[wiki/Temporal Network|Temporal Network]].
## Sources / Provenance
- [Treasury — Office of Intelligence and Analysis](https://home.treasury.gov/about/offices/terrorism-and-financial-intelligence/oia)
- [[research/Immigration and Customs Enforcement Pattern Analysis and Information Collection (ICEPIC)|ICEPIC research dossier]]