habitual offenders

Repeat crime committers

Habitual offenders are people who repeatedly commit crimes, especially those whose pattern of lawbreaking triggers harsher sentencing under recidivist statutes.

Three-strikes laws target habitual offenders with mandatory long sentences.

The term appears in legal contexts and news coverage: The state enacted tougher penalties for habitual offenders.

Related

rehabilitation programs · second chances · turning point · restorative justice · poverty · felony · systemic inequality · compulsion · early intervention · criminal record · probation · behind bars · counseling · revolving door · career criminal · rap sheet · sentencing guidelines · incarceration

Opposites
frequency of offense

habitual offendersfirst-time offenders

Those committing initial crimes

relationship to law/rules

habitual offendersstraight arrows

Conventional, upstanding people

pillars of the community

reform/rehabilitation

habitual offenderssuccess stories

Accounts of achievement

Family

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