Purpose: The criminal career paradigm is a major research focus in criminology, and the current state-of-theart review explicates research published between 2000 and 2011. Materials and methods: Keyword searches of Science Direct, Scopus, and the National Criminal Justice Research Service produced 364 studies on criminal careers. Results: A narrative meta-review summarizes essential findings on the parameters of the criminal career, investigates emerging theoretical and disciplinary extensions that utilize the criminal career framework, and identifies 16 pressing research gaps. Conclusions: Although the study of criminal careers has been a dominant research area in criminology, its presence is likely to expand as research becomes more interdisciplinary and a longitudinal, biosocial perspective takes hold in the criminological sciences.