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...

This essay is the lecture delivered by James Q. Wilson at the annual dinner of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, DC, on 4th December 1997.

The idea of an exceptional America remains controversial. In this dazzlingly comprehensive collection of essays, some of the nation s best scholars and thinkers take on the weighty task of sizing up Goliath in a way Americans and others can comprehend. These twenty studies in American exceptionalism provide a solidly researched and in-depth analysis on the current state of our institutions, our values, and our challenges for the future."

Crime in the United States has fluctuated considerably over the past thirty years, as have the policy approaches to deal with it. During this time criminologists and other scholars have helped to shed light on the role of incarceration, prevention, drugs, guns, policing, and numerous other aspects to crime control. Yet the latest research is rarely heard in public discussions and is often missing from the desks of policymakers. This book accessibly summarizes the latest scientific information on the causes of crime and evidence about what does and does not work to control it.

Thoroughly...

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...