Glossary: Glossary

criminalization

The pattern by which some groups of people become associated with criminal behavior, and people are encouraged to view them with suspicion and distrust. Can be based on racae, age, or economic status. Or, where a behavior that was not previously associated with criminal prosecution becomes a crime. This is still a sample def.

news feed

A news feed is a listing of a website's content. It is updated whenever new content is published to the site. The news feeds on our website simply show the latest news from a variety of websites. We have not hand-picked the news items you see and it is not endorsed or supported by the Western Prison Project. It is just another source of information about the issues we focus on.

recidivism

Recidivism refers to any time a person returns to prison. Sometimes, people return to prison because they have been convicted of a new crime, but not always. People can return to prison because they have committed a "technical violation" of their parole or post-prison supervision.

RSS

RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. It is what it claims to be: a quick and easy way to create and use "syndicated content" such as news headlines and announcements. Some websites (like this one) use RSS to deliver articles and article previews to readers who are simply too busy to browse to our site and dig up the content they are interested in. Other sites use RSS to alert customers of new products or upcoming events.

survivors

We intentionally use the word "survivor" to refer to people who have survived violence or crime, rather than focus on the fact that we have been victimized.