GETTING OUT OF THE LIFE - CRIME DESISTANCE BY FEMALE STREET OFFENDERS

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.