The study focused on 238 property offenders sentenced to imprisonment and followed up at least 3 years after parole. Their ages ranged from 16-59 years (mean age 34). The quasi-longitudinal part of the study involved interviews with the subjects shortly before parole release to obtain information on childhood, elementary school period, adolescence, and the year preceding the present prison term. Subsequent interviews were conducted 2, 8, and 14 months after release. Followup for officially registered criminality was between 3 and 5 years after release, and a self-report questionnaire was administered to estimate unofficial criminality. Psychological-test and criminal-career data were also collected. The primary objective of the study was to determine if it is possible to develop a model which explains the process of becoming a recidivist. In the model, a central role is given to the concepts of impulsivity, conscience, and socialization as measured by the California Psychological Inventory. The effort was successful, as the model demonstrates the importance of the interaction between individual traits and social factors in determining parole outcomes. The interacting factors in the model are father-son relationship, impulsivity, level of conscience development, a lack of control by socializing agents, behavior in elementary school, the development of a 'tough guy' image, socialization, school and employment record, and age at first conviction. Tabular data and 26 references are provided.