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..."