The study found empirical support for the basic assumptions of the theory as well as the general contention that the restraining capacity of adult life course transitions was sensitive to the cultural context in which they were embedded. According to the theory of age-graded social control (Sampson and Laub 1993), conventional institutional ties associated with adult life course transitions have the potential to reduce and even terminate the criminal behavior of recidivistic offenders. However, given that much of the empirical work informing this theory was based on data on individuals born in the United States in and around the Great Depression Era, a critique seemed warranted. The country of Finland presents an informative social setting to study the scope of Sampson and Laub's theory. This study focused on a sample of Finnish recidivists and examined the role of work, parenthood, marriage, and cohabitation in the process of criminal desistance. Five hypotheses were proposed about the impact of adult social bonds on criminal desistance in this socio-cultural environment. The hypotheses were than examined against a longitudinal dataset featuring recidivistic felons as the units of analysis. Figure, tables, and references