Although increased attention is being paid to gender variations in the
nature and extent of crime, little has been done to describe the term
ination of criminal careers by female offenders. This paper describes
how 30 women with long histories of criminal involvement changed their
perspectives toward life and criminal behavior. Changes in criminal b
ehavior occurred as a result of a three-stage process: building resolv
e or discovering motivation to stop (i.e., socially disjunctive experi
ences), making and publicly disclosing the decision to stop, and maint
aining new behaviors and integration into new social networks. Desista
nce appears to be a process as complex and lengthy as the processes of
initial involvement. Overall, the social processes and turning points
described by the women in the present research are quite similar to t
hose reported by men in previous studies.