A short history of the investigation into the ending of the criminal career

Abstract

The ‘age‐crime curve’, which shows that most of those who offend cease to do so, is one of the few certainties in criminology, yet desistance from offending has been relatively neglected as a subject of research. This article considers why desistance ought to feature as a central concern of the study of crime, provides an overview of the literature in the area, and outlines some of the key questions currently being posed, in a study of ex‐probationers, in relation to the processes by which offenders move away from offending.

Citation

Farrall, S. (2010), "A short history of the investigation into the ending of the criminal career", Safer Communities, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 9-16. https://doi.org/10.5042/sc.2010.0391