Decision To Give Up

It is an understatement to say that the relationship between age and crime is fairly close. Let us recall three facts: First, the rate of arrests according to age starts a sharp decline at the end of adolescence. Second, among adult recidivists a reduction in criminal activity takes place with aging (Glueck and Glueck, 1937). Third, according to Blumstein and Cohen (1982:50), the total duration of the career of persons convicted for index crimes and who started crime at 18 years of age was 5.6 years. We must add, however, that this average hides important variations: There are offenders who start their adult career at 18 and end it in their forties. These findings would be inconceivable if desistance from crime were not a frequent occurrence. Offenders give up crime almost as often as they get into it. To die a criminal, one would almost have to die a violent death...