Thinking about Crime

by James Q. Wilson

Overview

As crime rates inexorably rose during the tumultuous years of the 1970s, disputes over how to handle the violence sweeping the nation quickly escalated. James Q. Wilson redefined the public debate by offering a brilliant and provocative new argument—that criminal activity is largely rational and shaped by the rewards and penalties it offers—and forever changed the way Americans think about crime. Now with a new foreword by the prominent scholar and best-selling author Charles Murray, this revised edition of Thinking About Crime introduces a new generation of readers to the theories and ideas that have been so influential in shaping the American justice system.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465048830
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	05/14/2013
Edition description:	Revised Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

James Q. Wilson (1931-2012) taught at Harvard, UCLA, and Pepperdine. Author of eighteen books, including the standard college textbook on its topic, American Government, Wilson was a member of national commissions on criminal justice, drug abuse prevention, and national security. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Foreword Charles Murray xiii

Introduction xxi

Part I Crime

Chapter 1 Crime Amidst Plenty: The Paradox of the Sixties 3

Chapter 2 Crime and Community 16

Chapter 3 Thinking About Crime 30

Part II Policing

Chapter 4 The Police and Crime 49

Chapter 5 Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety 63

Chapter 6 The Police and Community Relations 78

Part III Criminal Justice

Chapter 7 Penalties and Opportunities 105

Chapter 8 Incapacitation 133

Chapter 9 Rehabilitation 150

Chapter 10 The Death Penalty 166

Chapter 11 Heroin 183

Part IV Crime and the American Regime

Chapter 12 Crime and American Culture 211

Chapter 13 Crime and Public Policy 238

Appendix: A Note on Gun Control 249

Notes 255

Index 271

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

[Wilson] was that rare academic whose ideas could be put into action and improve the quality of life…The greatest evidence of his success surrounds us—a resurgent city and thousands of New Yorkers who are alive today because of his radical solution to a tidal wave of crime.” —Rudolph Giuliani

“The most accomplished social scientist of the last half-century…Elegant in bearing, voracious for learning, eloquent in advocacy and amiable in disputation, Wilson was a prophet honored in his own country.” —George F. Will

Editorial Reviews

No one thought more insightfully about crime than James Q. Wilson.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly
In his influential book "Thinking About Crime," as he so often did when thinking, writing or speaking about public policies, James Wilson was able to present his ideas and observations in such a way that they provoked and stimulated thought, debate, and action in new directions. He certainly did that for me throughout my career and this book was just one example.
Bill Bratton, former Chief of the LAPD and Police Commissioner for the New York City and Boston Police Department
"Thinking About Crime" set the national crime-control agenda for a generation. Conditions have changed since: we have about five times as many people behind bars now as 1975. The debate has changed too. But forty years have not deprived Wilson's thinking of its fine critical edge, or his ideas of their centrality.
Mark Kleiman, Professor of Public Policy, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
[Wilson] was that rare academic whose ideas could be put into action and improve the quality of life.... The greatest evidence of his success surrounds usa resurgent city and thousands of New Yorkers who are alive today because of his radical solution to a tidal wave of crime.
Rudolph Giuliani
The most accomplished social scientist of the last half-century.... Elegant in bearing, voracious for learning, eloquent in advocacy and amiable in disputation, Wilson was a prophet honored in his own country.
George F. Will
"


"No one thought more insightfully about crime than James Q. Wilson."
--Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly

"In his influential book "Thinking About Crime", as he so often did when thinking, writing or speaking about public policies, James Wilson was able to present his ideas and observations in such a way that they provoked and stimulated thought, debate, and action in new directions. He certainly did that for me throughout my career and this book was just one example."
--Bill Bratton, former Chief of the LAPD and Police Commissioner for the New York City and Boston Police Department

""Thinking About Crime" set the national crime-control agenda for a generation. Conditions have changed since: we have about five times as many people behind bars now as 1975. The debate has changed too. But forty years have not deprived Wilson's thinking of its fine critical edge, or his ideas of their centrality."
--Mark Kleiman, Professor of Public Policy, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

"[Wilson] was that rare academic whose ideas could be put into action and improve the quality of life...The greatest evidence of his success surrounds us--a resurgent city and thousands of New Yorkers who are alive today because of his radical solution to a tidal wave of crime."
--Rudolph Giuliani

"The most accomplished social scientist of the last half-century...Elegant in bearing, voracious for learning, eloquent in advocacy and amiable in disputation, Wilson was a prophet honored in his own country."
--George F. Will


"In his influential book "Thinking About Crime", as he so often did when thinking, writing or speaking about public policies, James Wilson was able to present his ideas and observations in such a way that they provoked and stimulated thought, debate, and action in new directions. He certainly did that for me throughout my career and this book was just one example."
--Bill Bratton, former Chief of the LAPD and Police Commissioner for the New York City and Boston Police Department

""Thinking About Crime" set the national crime-control agenda for a generation. Conditions have changed since: we have about five times as many people behind bars now as 1975. The debate has changed too. But forty years have not deprived Wilson's thinking of its fine critical edge, or his ideas of their centrality."
--Mark Kleiman, Professor of Public Policy, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

"No one thought more insightfully about crime than James Q. Wilson, and "Thinking About Crime" is a testament to his scholarship on the subject."
--Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly

"[Wilson] was that rare academic whose ideas could be put into action and improve the quality of life...The greatest evidence of his success surrounds us--a resurgent city and thousands of New Yorkers who are alive today because of his radical solution to a tidal wave of crime."
--Rudolph Giuliani

"The most accomplished social scientist of the last half-century...Elegant in bearing, voracious for learning, eloquent in advocacy and amiable in disputation, Wilson was a prophet honored in his own country."
--George F. Will



"[Wilson] was that rare academic whose ideas could be put into action and improve the quality of life...The greatest evidence of his success surrounds us--a resurgent city and thousands of New Yorkers who are alive today because of his radical solution to a tidal wave of crime." --Rudolph Giuliani

"The most accomplished social scientist of the last half-century...Elegant in bearing, voracious for learning, eloquent in advocacy and amiable in disputation, Wilson was a prophet honored in his own country." --George F. Will

From the Publisher