Results found that coming from a low-income family, having few friends, being unpopular, and coming from a broken home at ages 8 to 10 predicted a low probability of getting married. At age 18, unemployment, never having had sex, and being a cannabis user predicted a low probability of getting married. Overall, these factors cannot necessarily be taken as indicators of the likelihood of getting married in themselves, but cumulatively they may indicate characteristics of an individual that may predispose him to compete less well in the marriage market. After matching for the propensity to get married and the number of convictions before marriage, it was found that for men who got married, there were significant reductions in the number of convictions after marriage. The effect of marriage on offending varied with age; there was an effect for early and mid-range marriages but not late marriages. Therefore, there may be an interaction effect between marriage and some variable that is correlated with age such as malleability or a willingness to change or be more flexible in behavior. It seems that as males become older, they may become more set in their ways and less likely to change their social habits after getting married. Data were collected from 411 South London males, mostly born in 1953, using a longitudinal survey, the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. Tables and references