A recidivist is an offender who repeatedly or habitually engages in criminal behavior. This usually refers to an individual being convicted of a crime, serving the sentence, and then committing another crime that results in a new conviction...
criminal law
reckless driving
Operating an automobile in a reckless manner. In most jurisdictions, reckless driving is a misdemeanor. Determining whether an individual’s operation of an automobile constitutes reckless driving is often a fact intensive inquiry. To illustrate, New...
release
To cease to be bound by an obligation or to concede a right. A release usually takes the form of a voluntary private contract between parties to cease the obligation or concede the right. California Civil Code § 1541 upholds...
release on one's own recognizance
A “release on one’s one recognizance” is a court's decision to allow a person charged with a crime to remain at liberty pending the trial, without having to post bail. Also sometimes referred to as “O.R.,” “R.O.R.,” or judicial public bail...
renunciation
When a person who is a party to the planning of a crime makes a timely repudiation and takes steps considered sufficient for neutralizing any assistance or other material that the person provided before the crime is actually committed.
reprieve
Reprieve means the temporary suspension or delay in the implementation of a criminal sentence ordered by the court. During the time of the reprieve, the implementation of the sentence is postponed. Nevertheless, that does not imply that the...
resisting arrest
Resisting arrest is the crime of preventing or hindering an arrest. Also referred to as "resisting an officer" or sometimes merely as "resisting" or “obstructing.” Many states have specific criminal statutes making resisting arrest a crime....
responsible
A person or body who can be held accountable for carrying out a duty is considered responsible.
In the context of tort law, it may refer to a party who caused injury, and is therefore synonymous with liable. In the context of...restitution
Restitution means compensating a person for loss or injury.
In civil cases, restitution is a remedy associated with unjust enrichment in which the amount of recovery is typically based on the defendant’s gain rather than the...
retributivism
Retributivism is a theory of criminal punishment which states that wrongdoers should be punished to cause suffering for the wrongdoer proportionate to the severity of their crime rather than to deter future crime or to rehabilitate them. In...