Criminological theories of desistance either predict a limited number of trajectories for repeat offenders as a result of childhood experience or attribute continuance or discontinuance of a criminal career largely to structural issues with individual agency playing a minimal role. This study of Aboriginal people who are in the process of desisting from crime demonstrates how the interaction between socialisation, agency and contingency creates heterogeneity of experience in the desistance process. Despite this heterogeneity are there common themes to which policy makers might usefully attend?