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Are there ways to intervene early in a child's life that might
reduce, at a reasonable cost, the probability of his becoming a
serious delinquent? The results of some small-scale social
experiments have been published suggesting that certain kinds of
preschool education and parent training might have desirable and
lasting effects. In addition, there is growing evidence that some
kinds of medical intervention and certain forms of school
organization and ethos could help reduce the rate of misconduct.
The authors provide a full-scale assessment of the evidence that
might lead to the design of new research and action efforts.
In 1982 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation created a
small committee-the Justice Program Study Group (whose membership
is listed at the end ofthis preface)-and posed to it what can
hardly be regarded as an easy ques tion: "What ideas, what
concepts, what basic intellectual frameworks are lack ing" to
understand and to more effectively deal with crime in our society?
Those who are acquainted with the work of the members of the Study
Group will appreciate how many divergent views were
expressed-divergent to the degree that some of us came to the
conclusion that we were not a Study Group at all but rather a group
being studied, an odd collection of ancient experimental animals
serving some dark purpose of the Foundation. Eventually, however, a
surprisingly strong concurrence emerged. We found we were impressed
by the extent to which in our discussions we placed heavy reliance
on the products of two types of research: first, those few
longitudinal studies related to juvenile delinquency and crime that
had been pursued in this country and, second, a few experimental
studies that had sought to measure the consequences of different
official interventions in criminal careers. These two research
strategies had taught us much about crime and its control. Other
strategies-case studies, cross-sectional surveys, participant
observations, and similar techniques-had indeed been productive,
but it was the longitudinal and experimental designs that firmed up
the knowledge that the others helped to discover."
A major work by one of America's most eminent political scientists,
"Political Organizations" has had a profound impact on how we view
the influence of interest groups on policy making. James Q. Wilson
wrote this book to counter two ideas: that popular interests will
automatically generate political organizations and that such
organizations will faithfully mirror the opinions and interests of
their members. Moreover, he demonstrated that the way in which
political organizations (including parties, business groups, labor
unions, and civil rights associations) are created and maintained
significantly affects the opinions they represent and the tactics
they use. Now available for the first time in paperback, this book
has broadened its scope to include recently developed organizations
as it addresses many of today's concerns over the power of such
groups as special-interests lobbies.
In 1973, when this book was first published, the press and
public were fascinated by the social movements of the 1960s,
thinking that the antiwar and civil rights movements might sweep
aside old-fashioned interest-group lobbies. Wilson argued, however,
that such movements would inevitably be supplanted by new
organizations, ones with goals and tactics that might direct the
course of action away from some of the movement's founding
principles. In light of the current popular distress with
special-interest groups and their supposed death-grip on Congress,
Wilson again attempts to modify a widely held view. He shows that
although lobbies have multiplied in number and kind, they remain
considerably restrained by the difficulty they have in maintaining
themselves. His approach charts a useful middle course between the
pluralist and the rational-choice schools of thought.
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Two Nations (Paperback)
James Q Wilson; Foreword by Christopher DeMuth
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While many Americans live in conditions of prosperity, a second
nation--where illegitimacy, child and drug abuse, violence,
criminality, and other social ills proliferate--is growing within.
From Simon & Schuster, Crime & Human Nature is the
definitive study of the causes of crime. Assembling the latest
evidence from the fields of sociology, criminology, economics,
medicine, biology, and psychology and exploring the effects of such
factors as gender, age, race, and family, two eminent social
scientists frame a groundbreaking theory of criminal behavior.
James Q. Wilson is the former president of the American Political
Science Association and adviser to four presidents on issues
related to crime, drug abuse, education, and other crises of
American cutlure. In this book, he has produced a provocative
series of essays related to character development and character
policy that sets this important area in perspective. He brings his
argument into clear focus by negating that public discussion of
character is a conservative pasttime. Rather, the development of
character is our collective responsibility. The public interest
depends on private virtue. Wilson argues throughout these essays
that to have good character one needs to have at least developed a
sense of empathy and self control. In various chapters he writes
about crime, families, communities and schooling with those two
traitsempathy and self-controlas a basis. He presents the current
crises of our community in clear perspective: how much can society
tolerate? what is the role of the police? the family? what is a
moral virtue? Wilson concludes with an argument that all humans
have an inborn "moral sense". We are, after all, social beings,
dependent on each other and we have an obligation to each other to
develop that moral sense if we care about each other. This is a
well written, reasoned book by a wise and experienced expert.
The patrolman has the most difficult, complex, and least understood
task in the police department. Much less is known of him than of
his better publicized colleague, the detective. In this important
and timely book, James Q. Wilson describes the patrolman and the
problems he faces that arise out of constraints imposed by law,
politics, public opinion, and the expectations of superiors.
The study considers how the uniformed officer in eight
communities deals with such common offenses as assault, theft,
drunkenness, vice, traffic, and disorderly conduct. Six of the
communities are in New York State: Albany, Amsterdam, Brighton,
Nassau County, Newburgh, and Syracuse. The others are Highland
Park, Illinois, and Oakland, California.
Enforcing laws dealing with common offenses is especially
difficult because it raises the question of administrative
discretion. Murder, in the eyes of the police, is unambiguously
wrong, and murderers are accordingly arrested; but in cases such as
street-corner scuffles or speeding motorists, the patrolman must
decide whether to intervene (should the scuffle be stopped? should
the motorist be pulled over?) and, if he does, just how to
intervene (by arrest? a warning? an interrogation?). In most large
organizations, the lowest-ranking members perform the more
routinized tasks and the means of accomplishing these tasks are
decided by superiors, but in a police department the lowest-ranking
officer--the patrolman--is almost solely responsible for enforcing
those laws which are the least precise, the most ambiguous. Three
ways or "styles" of policing--the watchman, the legalistic, and the
service styles--are analyzed and their relation to local politicsis
explored.
In the final chapter, Mr. Wilson discusses if and how the
patrolman's behavior can be changed and examines some current
proposals for reorganizing police departments. He observes that the
ability of the patrolman to do his job well may determine our
success in managing social conflict and our prospects for
maintaining a proper balance between liberty and order.
Are human beings naturally endowed with a conscience? Or is
morality artificially acquired through social pressure and
instruction? Most people assume that modern science proves the
latter. Further, most of our current social policies are based upon
this "scientific" view of the sources of morality. In this book,
however, James Q. Wilson seeks to reconcile traditional ideas with
a range of important empirical research into the sources of human
behavior over the last fifty years. Marshalling evidence drawn from
diverse scientific disciplines, including animal behavior,
anthropology, evolutionary theory, biology, endocrinology, brain
science, genetics, primatology, education and psychology, Wilson
shows that the facts about the origin and development of moral
reasoning are not at odds with traditional views predating Freud,
Darwin and Marx. Our basic sense of right and wrong actually does
have a biological and behavioral origin. This "moral sense" arises
from the infant's innate sociability, though it must also be
nurtured by parental influence. Thus, this book revives ancient
traditions of moral and ethical argument that go back to Aristotle,
and reunifies the separate streams of philosophical and scientific
knowledge that for so long were regarded as unbridgeable.
For each chapter, the Student Handbook includes focus points, a
study outline, key terms, notes about possible misconceptions, a
data check, practice exam questions, and special application
projects, as well as answers to all chapter exercises (excluding
the essay questions).
Available at no extra cost when packaged with new copies of the
text.
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