ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses event history data from a large-scale social experiment that provided employment to male and female offenders. The results indicate that gender differences in the predictors of desistance largely depend on the domain of behavior under consideration; and indicators of normative status, as opposed to the perceived risks of crime or age-graded informal controls, are particularly important determinants of women's risks of rearrest. According to rational choice theory, individuals weigh the costs and benefits of criminal and noncriminal opportunities and select the alternative with the greatest net benefit. The chapter focuses on desistance research by explicitly addressing gender differences in crime cessation. It examines separate models contrasting two theoretical perspectives: a motivational model that incorporates aspects of rational choice, social control, and opportunity theories to explain behavioral desistance, and a theory of law model that attempts to hold individual behavior constant and seeks to explain official desistance based on the social statuses of individuals.
