Increasing attention is being given to the issue of desistance or cessation in adult criminal careers. This article considers how informal and formal social controls affect recidivism among 556 sex offenders placed on probation in 1992. It reports on an event history analysis of reoffense, based on the predictions of Sampson and Laub’s and Gottfredson and Hirschi’s control theories. The article builds on these perspectives by examining how informal social controls condition the effects of formal social controls generally and across offense types. There was less recidivism among offenders with stable job histories, particularly among those in court-ordered sex offender treatment. Most sex offenders placed on probation were likely to desist from sex crimes and other crimes, at least when desistance was measured by the absence of official reoffense. Convicted sex offenders who experienced the combined effects of both formal and informal social controls were particularly likely to desist. Notes, tables, figures, references