It doesn't really matter. It depends more on whether they like you.
You can't really join anyone until after the story. After that...

do u mean during the game or after the u finished the whole game buddy?????

Once you finish the story (you'll be at level 18), you're free to do whatever you want, and that includes being part of criminal factions. You can't really do that in the story unless you're using a no story mod

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't"

i don't know... in sp after juni killed some1...

in mp, you can start right after launching, or just stay at the other site with hunters/cops/navy.

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Spamius Threadius

Just one second after the birth of the Universe, space was flooded with particles and over the next 300 million years stars and galaxies began to evolve into the kind of cosmic landscape that we recognise today. But there's one big problem. We shouldn't really be here. People, planets, stars, galaxies should all be impossible dreams. In theory, nothing should exist.

You understand you can't 'officially' join-up -- this being your second thread on the subject, I'm beginning to think that this is what you're asking. As I said in your Rogue thread, you can pretend to be a criminal, but you can't actually become part of any faction. You could be level 1 or level 38 and still be a freelancer, I'm afraid.

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"If it aint on fire, you haven't shot it up bad enough yet" - my old teacher on Planet Housten.

The Bounty Hunter Intelligence and Tactical Computer System

if you refer to mp the answer would be a lot different
some servers will start you with a criminal tag if you so desire
i believe sir warwicks is one