ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an effort to investigate the age pattern of criminal involvement from an economist's perspective. It also presents a dynamic stochastic model of sequential search and match evaluation which is used to explain the reasons for, and the timing of, the decision to terminate a criminal career. The behavioral implications derived from the theoretical model are tested using individual National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data. Retiring behavior is also significantly responsive to variables measuring personal costs of punishment and the availability and attractiveness of a legal income-generating activity in ways consistent with theoretical expectations. Crime desistance, rational choice, life-cycle models, matching effects, and value of a criminal career are the variables measuring personal costs of punishment. The chapter describes the estimates of the multinomial logit model of career duration choice. The estimated effect of criminal earnings on the log-odds of retirement proved to be substantial and the most significant in influencing retirement decisions.
