ABSTRACT
With all due apologies to the aggregate age/crime curve, there is little denying that there is great variability between offenders and within offenders over time with respect to offending over the life course. Many persons offend, but only do so once. Others offend two or three times, and then stop. And a much smaller set of persons offend with high frequency and over longer periods of time. But much like a roller-coaster’s initial large incline to the top, participation and frequency of offending also exhibit declines over the life course until some finite (but difficult to identify without fail) end-point. This decline in offending, is what is commonly referred to (but not always conceptually agreed upon) as desistance from crime.
