Results indicated that almost all of the high-risk offenders desisted from crime by the age of 41 and, for the most part, they desisted at the same rate. Few self- or social control variables predicted patterns of desistance over the 25-year period. Only previous deviant behaviors significantly predicted crime desistance (the launch effect model). Findings revealed that some measures of self- and social control accelerated or restrained the crime desistance process (the contemporaneous effect model), but only during specific developmental periods. The most significant predictors of crime persistence were high levels of disinhibition and substance use. The findings suggest the importance of including personality traits in longitudinal studies of crime desistance. Two models were tested using latent trajectory modeling: (1) the launch effect model, accounting for the effects of deviance behavior; and (2) the contemporaneous effect model, accounting for the effects of self- and social control on crime desistance. Data were drawn from the Montreal Two-Samples Longitudinal Study (MTSLS), which included two samples of Caucasian, French-speaking men recruited during the mid-1970s. The sample under analysis in the current study was a group of 470 boys adjudicated during adolescence under either the Canadian Juvenile Delinquents Act or the Quebec Youth Protection Act. Participants, who were around age 15, completed self-administered questionnaires that focused on delinquent and anti-social behavior. Participants completed the questionnaire again three more time: 8 years later at roughly age 23, again at roughly age 31, and then once more at roughly age 41. The questionnaires measured self-reported criminal activity, substance use, personality traits, commitment to conventional social roles, prosocial interpersonal affiliation, and school and family experiences. The analysis employed a structural equation modeling approach to the latent trajectory modeling technique. Future research should investigate whether these findings extend to samples of female offenders. Figures, tables, notes, references