Persistent thieves - criminals who resume committing crimes of burglary, robbery, vehicle theft, and ordinary theft despite previous attempts to stop - are a main focal point of American criminology and criminal justice. Great Pretenders is based on the author's original studies and previously published research and on more than fifty autobiographies of persistent thieves.

Shover uses a crime-as-choice framework and a life-course perspective to make sense of important decisions and changes in the lives of persistent thieves.