Recent years have witnessed an increase in the attention given to the later stages of criminal careers. Research upon this topic has charted the main factors associated with the termination of criminal careers, outlined some of the possible reasons behind these relationships and started to develop theoretical explanations for such relationships. Collected together for the first time are some of the most important contributions to this field of research. The collection focuses upon the initial explorations into this topic, the most commonly observed findings, the cessation of offending by specific offender-types and theoretical matters. An introductory essay by the editor provides a thorough overview of the work in this area and highlights the reasons why the termination of criminal careers will become increasingly important to criminologists and criminal justice policy makers alike.

Stephen Farrall, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK. Interests include: why people stop offending; the impact of probation supervision on patterns of offending, and the fear of crime. He has published several articles on these aspects of his work and is currently completing the analysis of a longitudinal, self-report investigation of the impact of probation supervision.

Contents: Initial Explorations: A study of a delinquent community, John Barron Mays; The effect of social environment upon former felons, Dietrich C. Reitzes; Temporary and continuing delinquency, B.J. Knight and D.J. West; An exploratory study of existing from criminal careers, Thomas Meisenhelder; The short term careers of serious thieves, W. Gordon West; Delinquency cessation and adolescent development: preliminary data, Edward P. Mulvey and John F. LaRosa. Commonly Observed Regularities: Early marriage and criminal tendency in males, B.J. Knight, S.G. Osborn and D.J. West; Unemployment, school leaving and crime, David P. Farrington, Bernard Gallagher, Lynda Morley, Raymond J. St Ledger and Donald J. West; The criminal career: estimates of the duration and frequency of crime commission, William Rhodes; Delinquency: do the delinquents drop back in?, Kimberley L. Kempf; Going straight: desistance from crime and life narratives of reform, Shadd Maruna. Desistance By Specific Offending Populations: The later stages of ordinary property offender careers, Neal Shover; Growing focus on criminal careers, Constance Holden; Initiation, escalation and desistance in juvenile offending and their correlates, Rolf Loeber, Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, Welmoet van Kammen and David P. Farrington; Getting out of the life: crime desistance by female street offenders, Deborah Baskin and Jeffrey Fagan; Crime in the breaking: gender differences in desistance, Christopher Uggen and Candace Kruttschnitt. Theorising Desistance I - Rational Choice Models: Decisions to participate in and desist from 4 types of common delinquency: deterrence and the rational choice perspective, Raymond Paternoster; Age differential expectations and crime desistance, Neal Shover and Carol Y. Thompson; Earning prospects, matching effects and the decision to terminate a criminal career, Liliana E. Pezzin. Theorising Desistance II - the Life-Course Perspective: Adolescent-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour: a developmental taxonomy, Terrie E. Moffitt; Trajectories of change in criminal offending: good marriages and the desistance process, John H. Laub, Daniel S. Nagin and Robert J. Sampson; Life-course transitions and desistance from crime, Mark Warr; Structuration, human development and desistance from crime, Stephen Farrell and Benjamin Bowling; Name index.