Recidivism

 WORD OF THE DAY

recidivism / noun / rih-SID-uh-viz-um

Definition
1a: a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior
1b: relapse into criminal behavior

Examples
"The company's success rate, measured by residents who move on to self-sufficient housing before relapse or recidivism, turns statistics upside down. Forman says more than 60% of residents are clean, sober and employed after 2 years or more."
— Christian Grace, Cape Gazette (Lewes, Delaware), 31 May 2022

The virtual event, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Baltimore County and the Randallstown NAACP, also touched upon the candidates’ qualifications for the job, juvenile justice issues, preventing recidivism and other topics.
— Alison Knezevich, Baltimore Sun, 28 June 2022

Did You Know?
The re- in recidivism is the same re- in relapse and return, and like those words recidivism is about going back: it’s a tendency to relapse, especially into criminal behavior.
Recidivism is a 19th century French borrowing that’s ultimately from a Latin word meaning “to relapse into sin or crime.”
In borrowing recidivism, English was itself engaging in a kind of recidivism: the same Latin source of recidivism had been nabbed in the 16th century to form the much less common recidivate, meaning “to fall into or exhibit recidivism.”