Recidivism a term used to mean people who are the repeaters of crime. If someone has committed robbery & does the same crime again after getting punishment & after coming out of prison that person is termed as Recidivist. Basically recidivist are often characterized as anti social, aggressive & indifferently to well being of others. These are those person who have embraced criminality as a mode of life & commits crime with huge courage. Apparently there are lesser chances of rehabilitation of such offenders as they commit crime deliberately in a calculated manner. For them imprisonment is the only way that gets left to prevent them from being the repeaters of crime. The main causes of recidivism are mainly-
 
 1.Education- The lack of education of a person leads him to become a recidivist. As lack of education makes him unskilled & the person cannot stand in competition with the society so he chooses to indulge in criminal activity the punishment for which he gets  imprisonment & since prison life is non competitive he gets adjusted to it.
 
 2.Poverty-The lack of education results into unemployment which further leads to poverty. An investigation shows that most of the released prisoners face unemployment & poverty.The stigma of being an offender also at most of the time results in rejection of employment  & which ultimately forces them to be recidivist.
 
 3.Insanity-Some offenders due to their mental depravity or due to the insanity cannot understand the nature & gravity of the crime & ultimately that leads them to be recidivist.
 Sometimes inadequacy of correctional measures in treatment of offenders is yet another cause of recidivism. A large number of failures in parole, probation & reformatories certainly reflect upon the ineffectiveness of correctional methods in cases of hardened & habitual offenders.
 
 Prevention-Recidivism can only be stopped if after the release of a prisoner adequate after care treatment is provided to him. Secondly recidivist offenders should be kept under 24/7 surveillance so that the society is fully protected & lastly they should be provided education  so that after getting released they find a way to earn their livelihood.
 
 Conclusion-No crime can be stopped in the name of punishment if such a concept would have existed then there would have been no recidivism. An offender can only be stopped from being a recidivist only if the society changes attitude towards the offenders as criminal always gets born from the society & such a thing can only be made possible through proper understanding & education.
 
 Books Referred-Criminology & penology by prof N.V.Paranjape,14th edition, Central law publication.