James B. Jacobs

Guest Author

James Jacobs is the Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and Director of the Center for Research in Crime and Justice at NYU. Jacobs holds a JD (1973) and a PhD in sociology (1975) from the University of Chicago. Before joining the NYU Law faculty in 1982, he was a member of the Cornell Law School faculty. He teaches first-year criminal law and upper-year electives on criminal procedure, federal criminal law, and juvenile justice, as well as various specialized seminars, e.g. this year on asset forfeiture and money laundering. Jacobs has published 16 books and more than 100 articles. His first book, Stateville: The Penitentiary in Mass Society(1977), regarded as a penological classic, deals with the impact of gangs, public employee unionism, prisoners’ rights litigation, and other post–World War II phenomena on the social organization of the American prison. Five of his books, including most recently Breaking the Devil’s Pact: The Battle to Free the Teamsters from the Mob (2011), document the government’s long-term campaign to eradicate Italian-American organized crime. Among his books on other criminal justice topics are Can Gun Control Work?(2004); Hate Crimes: Criminal Law & Identity Politics (2000); The Pursuit of Absolute Integrity (1996); and Drunk Driving: An American Dilemma (1992). His most recent book, The Eternal Criminal Record (2015), was supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is currently working on a book-length case study of the SAFE Act, NYS’s 2013 omnibus gun control law.