The purpose of this degree project was to get increased knowledge about the difficulties youth might face while disengaging from a criminal lifestyle, and this from a professional perspective. To achieve this I interviewed four professionals working within the Social service and Prison and probation service. When analysing the material the general theory of the process of “role-exit” (Ebaugh 1988) was used, as well as the theory about criminality as lifestyle (Bergström 2009) There are a number of both inner and outer factors seeming to create difficulties to the process of “role-exit”. Insufficient social network and prosocial experience as well as a number of specific thought patterns are some of those. Youth trying to disengage from a criminal lifestyle seem to go through a similar process as the general “role-exit”, the specific difficulties they face has partly to do with having to deal with a negative “Ex-role” while in contact with people and at the same time trying to create a new one.