Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A tendency to recidivate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Relapse into crime; the conduct or condition of a recidivist.
Wiktionary
- n. Committing new offenses after being punished for a crime.
- n. psychology, psychiatry Chronic repetition of criminal or other antisocial behavior.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Criminology) The state or quality of being recidivous; relapse. a falling back or relapse into prior criminal habits, esp. after conviction and punishment.
WordNet 3.0
- n. habitual relapse into crime
Etymologies
- From recidivist, one who recidivates, from French récidiviste, from récidiver, to relapse, from Medieval Latin recidīvāre, from Latin recidīvus, falling back, from recidere, to fall back : re-, re- + cadere, to fall. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The very least we can do to reduce recidivism is not slap a penalty on to people the moment they are released.”
The Guardian: Drinking alcohol is not a crime, even for prisoners on parole
“The statistics on what is called recidivism, i.e. sliding back into old eating and exercise patterns, are clear.”
“What we know about recidivism is around the age of 30 or so, most males, which are predominately the people in these systems, drop in terms of their risk.”
“Of course, recidivism is high, so three strikes and out laws move people to life sentences.”
Why Aren’t There More Old Criminals? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
“And really to get a long-term recidivism study, it's going to take maybe two, three, four years to be able to track people.”
“The latter solves the problem of recidivism and the former, well, isn’t really recidivism, is it?”
“And what really impresses me is that perfect use of recidivism, which is a great word that I can never seem to work into a conversation.”
“The judge also observed that in this case there was no likelihood of recidivism, that is, of repeating this kind of activity.”
“Q Geoff, when these numbers have been released in the past, there's been discussion among critics that, actually -- that this should not be titled recidivism, but that, possibly, some of these individuals may have turned to terrorist activities as a result of the treatment or their detention at Guantanamo -- in order words, that they may have -- not have had these inclinations prior to having arrived there.”
“UPDATE 2: Check out the hilarious Cully Stimson (the ex-DOD lawyer who tried to get corporate America to fire their law firms for working on Gtmo cases, and got fired himself, in Jan. 2007) commenting in the LA Times (scroll down to end) on the "recidivism" rate being too low to be credible.”
Shayana Kadidal: New York Times Re-runs Retracted Story on Guantanamo Detainees' "Return to Terror"
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘recidivism’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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250 Spelling Words
A selected sampling of words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
orecchiette, rhabdomancy, guayabera, orthoepy, opisthenar, maguey, proem, ciabatta, cioppino, banns, concinnity, asthenia and 237 more...
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phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
raad, rabanna, rabbet, rabble, Rabelaisian, rabic, racemation, raceme, racemiferous, rach, rachidian, rachiometer and 514 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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JURI - courtroom speak
Legal glossary with special focus on courtroom vocabulary
accused, acquittal, ADA, adjournment, adjudication, affidavit, affirmed, aggravated range, aggravating factors, allegation, alleged, answer and 794 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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-ism's -logies
acosmism, absurdism, absolutism, ableism, aestheticism, alarmism, allotheism, anachronism, animalculism, analogism, animatism, animism and 464 more...
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Reading materials
psychopath, malinger, feign, psychiatry, yawn, stripe, pinstripe, sane, hallucination, glib, grandiose, adept and 5 more...
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Vocab_TC60Q_txtbook
most vocab in the textbook Page till end chapter 2.
moribund, unflagging, defunct, sated, inveigling, opining, needling, fulminating, lauding, vassals, serfs, minions and 86 more...
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Lifehacking
Start with the effect, the what; signal-patch known-belief spirit. "Write my program, routine me." New cue vs brand loyalty. Ritual Ceremony Design Technologies, Inc.
confusion, misdirection, fractionation, disequilibrium, relaxation, repetition, impassioned, intensity, suddenly, shock, concentration, focus and 118 more...
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GRE Words
orotund, mendacious, inimical, foment, contumacious, abrogate, arrogate, syncretism, abate, abdication, aberration, abeyance and 123 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for recidivism.

kiltwraith repeated or habitual relapse, as into crime. Mar 18, 2009