The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Recidivism \Re*cid"i*vism\ (r[-e]*s[i^]d"[i^]*v[i^]z'm), n.
   The state or quality of being recidivous; relapse, specif.
   (Criminology), a falling back or relapse into prior criminal
   habits, esp. after conviction and punishment.
   [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

         The old English system of recognizances, in which the
         guilty party deposits a sum of money, is an excellent
         guarantee to society against recidivism. --Havelock
                                                  Ellis.
   [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

recidivism
    n 1: habitual relapse into crime

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

94 Moby Thesaurus words for "recidivism":
   about-face, amorality, apostasy, atheism, backing, backset,
   backslide, backsliding, backward motion, backward step, betrayal,
   bolt, breakaway, carnality, criminality, defection, delinquency,
   desertion, disenchantment, disloyalty, evil, evil nature,
   faithlessness, fall, fall from grace, flip-flop, going over,
   immorality, impiety, impiousness, impurity, irreligion,
   irreverence, lapse, lapse from grace, moral delinquency,
   peccability, prodigality, ratting, reaction, recession,
   recidivation, reclamation, reconversion, recreancy, reentry,
   refluence, reflux, regress, regression, rehabilitation,
   reinstatement, relapse, restitution, restoration, retroaction,
   retrocession, retroflexion, retrogradation, retrogression,
   retroversion, retrusion, return, returning, reversal, reverse,
   reversion, reverting, revulsion, rollback, secession, setback,
   slipping back, sternway, throwback, treason, turn, turnabout,
   turning traitor, unangelicalness, unchastity, uncleanness,
   undutifulness, ungodliness, ungoodness, unmorality,
   unrighteousness, unsaintliness, unvirtuousness, vice, viciousness,
   wantonness, waywardness, wrongdoing