Samenvatting

This article is a first report on the longitudinal study of forty Moroccan and Dutch criminal men. The research was started in 1982. The author returned to the subject in 1988. In 2008, the author started a new research project with the same men.
The focus of this article is on the process of desistance. Ten men already ended their criminal period in the late eighties (the ‘early desisters’). In between time, two of them relapsed. Nine men can be called ‘late desisters’. They had many more obstacles to face in their re-integration, such as long-term employment and addiction to hard drugs. The combination of getting regular work, marriage and a permanent place of living is very effective in the process of desistance. But in the end, personal qualities, such as discipline, taking up responsibility and motivation, will be decisive.