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The relationship between age and the onset of criminal behavior has always been a core focus in developmental criminology. Numerous prospective studies have documented that crime rates tend to peak in teenage years and decrease in adulthood. The criminal career paradigm (the study of how criminal careers begin, develop and end) has been used to investigate the age-crime relationship by drawing attention to the question whether offenders specialize in certain type or a few types of offenses over time or alternatively, if it is more reasonable to characterize offenders as generalist (Blumstein 1988; Farrington 1988; Piquero 2000, Wolfgang et al, 1972). After reviewing literature on specialization with a focus on the studies addressing the relationship between age and specialization in particular, we propose an event history analysis in investigating this relationship. Using data from the Delinquency in a Birth Cohort in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1945-1963, we conduct a competing risk repeat event survival analysis. In particular, we explore whether the patterns of specialization change as a function of age at onset, age at offense, and, more interestingly, the average time between offenses. Findings shed light on the criminal career paradigm and contribute to the research on the age-crime relation in general. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]