HABITUAL OFFENDER

criminal who has frequently been apprehended and convicted, who has manifested a settled practice in crime, and who is presumed to be a danger to the society in which he lives. Penal systems of most countries provide for more protracted imprisonment of such criminals than would normally be imposed upon first offenders. Because the purpose of long sentences for habitual offenders is primarily to segregate and only secondarily to deter and reform, however, administrators of European and English penal systems have endeavoured to ameliorate the penal conditions of such prisoners, particularly toward the ends of their terms. Despite the concept's popularity, by the 1980s laws providing for additional punishment for repeaters had not accomplished the removal of dangerous criminals from society.