The word for today is "recidivism", and if you want to know what that means, go look it up in your dictionary, which helpfully defines it as "A tendency to recidivate." No kidding.

I came across this word in an article in the Detroit News, which suggested that religion may or may not effect recidivism among ex-convicts. Without specifying the religion in question, it states that of ten religious prison programs, six produced "a modest positive effect", four produced "no effect", and none produced a negative effect.

The title of this article, however, is "Religion has mixed effect on recidivism". What exactly does "mixed effect" bring to your mind? To a dictionary, as well as the average Joe, I assume, it means "A blend of diverse elements". Too bad Alan Cooperman, the author of this article, didn't check his dictionary first. Or, wait--was that the idea? Anyone casually skimming over this article--or only seeing the headline--will come away with the impression that religion can adversely affect the future behavior of prison inmates. In the interests of downplaying religion, Cooperman leaves the impression that advocates of religious prison programs are naive at best.

Bravo, Alan. You do your job well.