History-sheeter
In Indian English, a history-sheeter is a person with a long criminal record. Known as a career criminal outside of South Asia, the term is found in newspapers of South Asian countries such as India and Pakistan.
According to Anastasia Piliavsky, the concept of "history sheeter" has origins in the colonial era rule and its police surveillance codes. The legal codes allowed preemptive penalties against those listed as a "history sheeter", and these codes were copied into the post-independent Indian Penal Code Sections 109 and 110. The Indian states such as Rajasthan list a person as a "history sheeter" when "his or her criminal record reaches or exceeds thirty offenses," states Piliavsky.
