recidivist

plural recidivists

1. One who falls back into prior habits, especially criminal habits.

   This specimen was of English parentage, was a professional burglar, a confirmed recidivist, and—since he habitually carried firearms—a potential homicide.

   1914, R. Austin Freeman, chapter 2, in The Uttermost Farthing

   1 more example

   Persistent recidivists are "accidentally" left on the next habitable world. This practice of abandoning criminals on other people's planets is a point of friction between the quarians and the systems they pass through. Captains rarely have another choice; with space and resources at a premium, supporting a non-productive prison population is not an option.

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Quarians: Law and Defense Codex entry

   Synonyms: repeat offender

comparative more recidivist · superlative most recidivist

1. Tending to fall back into prior habits, especially criminal habits.

   Court programs, a comparatively recent innovation in the rehabilitation of drunkenness offenders, originally stemmed from the interest of individual judges and magistrates concerned about the treadmill of waste among recidivist alcoholics.

   1971, J. George Strachan, “Legal and Law Enforcement”, in Practical Alcoholism Programming: An Honorable Approach to Man’s Alcoholism Problem, Vancouver, B.C.: Mitchell Press Limited, →OCLC, part I (Programming Defined), chapter 3 (An Overall Approach to Programming), page 74

   2 more examples

   To return to Macbeth, I should like to note another psychological intuition of [William] Shakespeare’s, which is that women commit fewer crimes than men; but when they commit them they are more cruel and more obstinately recidivist than men. Lady Macbeth, for example, is more inhumanly ferocious than her husband.

   1897 August, Enrico Ferri, “The Delinquent in Art and in Literature”, in The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume LXXX, number CCCCLXXVIII, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 237, column 1

   Although there is no single factor underlying aggressive behavior in children, my own 30-plus years looking into the relationship between excessive parental discipline and delinquency has convinced me that the violent, recidivist, male juvenile delinquent who was not raised on the belt, board, cord, or fist is nonexistent.

   2006 August 5, Ralph S. Welsh, “Rod is the spoiler”, in Science News, volume 170, number 6, Washington, D.C.: Society for Science, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 Feb 2025, “Letters” section

   Synonyms: recidive, recidivous