ABSTRACT
In order to explain criminal behavior, one must consider at least three stages within criminal careers: its emergence, its patterning, and its abandonment. This chapter explores the third stage, the abandonment of criminal behavior. The primary goal of this research is to gain an understanding of exiting as a natural career stage as it is experienced by the offenders themselves. The data were collected during tape-recorded interview conversations with twenty inmates of a south-eastern correctional institution. The interviews were conducted within the institution and were unstructured or nonstandardized in format. The interviews reveal that successful exits involve the practical recognition of the irreversibility of time, and consequently a personal decision by the respondents to "start anew." The formal completion of a successful exiting project requires a symbolic component, certification. In order to impress the conventional community with their success at exiting, and in order to achieve social certification, the respondents employed some adept forms of self-presentation.
