James Q. Wilson

James Q. Wilson (born May 27, 1931) is a professor emeritus at UCLA. He has a Ph.D (1959) from the University of Chicago. He is a former Chairman of the White House Task Force on Crime (1966), of the National Advisor Commission on Drug Abuse Prevention (1972-73), of the Attorney General's Task Force on Violent Crime (1981), and the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1985-90). He is a former president of the American Political Science Association. He currently serves on the board of directors for the New England Electric System, Protection One, RAND, and State Farm Mutual Insurance. He is the chairman of the Council of Academic Advisors of the American Enterprise Institute. Wilson is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Writings by James Q. Wilson

• American Government
• Bureaucracy
• Crime and Human Nature
• The Moral Sense
• Political Organizations
• Thinking About Crime
• Varieties of Police Behavior

Quotes

• "It may turn out that a free society cannot really prevent crime. Perhaps...coping is the best that we can hope for..."