recidivist
re·ci·di·vist
noun
1.
someone who is repeatedly arrested for criminal behavior (especially for the same criminal behavior)
2.
someone who lapses into previous undesirable patterns of behavior
Origin
From French récidiviste, from Latin recidīvus (“returning, recurring”). Compare recidivous, -ist. By surface analysis, recidive + -ist.
Related words
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.