The results are based on the Tuebingen Criminal Behavior Development Study (TCBDS). The core of the original TCBDS was a comprehensive qualitative study of the life histories of 400 young men. The goal was to obtain detailed and systematically structured experiential knowledge about pathways toward crime compared with pathways away from crime. Results from the TCBDS show that the more a person is involved in crime, the more he/she is engaged in alcohol consumption; however, neither early experiences of socialization nor imprisonment experiences are sufficient causal conditions for a heavy alcohol consumption in later life. The analyses show that alcohol abuse is an expression of the typical behavioral patterns and daily routine of criminals. Delinquency, alcohol consumption, and a deviant lifestyle apparently interact and enhance each other in the sense of an increasing spiral that leads to a decrease in opportunities for developing and maintaining a normal, socially integrated life. Nevertheless, heavy drinking in the past does not prohibit a reduction in alcohol consumption patterns, but desistance from crime goes hand in hand with desistance from heavy drinking. 7 tables, 4 figures, and 15 references