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Influential scholar and author James Q. Wilson, the inaugural senior visiting fellow at the Boston College Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, died March 2 in Boston. He was 80.
Dr. Wilson, who held professorships at Harvard and UCLA and wrote on subjects ranging from marriage to street crime to contemporary US politics and government, was perhaps best known for his co-authored 1982 Atlantic Monthly article “Broken Windows,” which argued in favor of community policing in urban areas.
In addition to publishing numerous articles, Dr. Wilson was author or co-author of 14 books, including The Marriage Problem: How Our Culture Has Weakened Families, Moral Judgment and The Moral Sense. He also was co-author of American Government, widely considered the most popular political science text in the country.
"James Q. Wilson meant a lot to me and many of my colleagues in the BC political science department," said Prof. Peter Skerry, a former student and long-time friend of Prof. Wilson. "Not only was Jim a man of exemplary character and integrity, he was our teacher and intellectual mentor. He embodied and practiced a type of political science that is increasingly rare, one not obsessed with sophisticated techniques, but focused on asking important questions about public policy and politics -- and whose answers were of interest and accessible to a broad audience.
"That's why we welcomed Jim here as a senior fellow at the Clough Center, and why we intend to honor him by continuing to nurture his kind of political science here at BC."
Joining the Clough Center in the fall of 2009 — he also became a distinguished scholar in the BC Political Science Department — Dr. Wilson presented lectures on subjects such as President Obama’s approach to national security, and science and human behavior, and led student seminars while pursuing a variety of writing projects: He worked on a revised text of American Government, edited one book of essays on crime and public policy and another of his own essays, and researched a book about the effect of economic stimulus funding.
Dr. Wilson was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, a past president of the American Political Science Association, and the recipient of the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Harvard University and was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in 2003.
He is survived by his wife Roberta, son Matthew and daughter Annie Gilbert, and five grandchildren.