Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. THE PATROLMAN The Maintenance of Order Justice as a Constraint Some Organizational Consequences 3. THE POLICE ADMINISTRATOR Managing Discretion Critical Events 4. POLICE DISCRETION The Determinants of Discretion The Eight Communities The Uses of Discretion 5. THE WATCHMAN STYLE The Organizational Context Some Consequences 6. THE LEGALISTIC STYLE The Organizational Context Some Consequences 7. THE SERVICE STYLE The Organizational Context Some Consequences 8. POLITICS AND THE POLICE Politics and the Watchman Style Politics and the Service Style Politics and the Legalistic Style Some Findings from National Data 9. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Promotional Information

It is, without doubt, the finest book on the American police ever written, and Professor Wilson is one of our best-known scholars of urban affairs...Rich...full to the brim with increasing details and shrewd insight. Anyone who wants to have an informed opinion about the policeman's relations to law and order ought to read it. -- Irving Kristol

About the Author

James Q. Wilson was Professor of Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Reviews

[Varieties of Police Behavior] must unquestionably become an indispensable study of politics in the American city. It is based on enormous and detailed research… The material is presented in a controlled and disciplined no-nonsense style.
*New York Review of Books*

This is surely one of the most informative books about the police ever written… Varieties of Police Behavior is a rich, sophisticated book by an author unusually able to tackle the comprehensiveness and interdependence of the issues which affect police performance, and [James Q. Wilson’s] analysis and conclusions have much to teach.
*Times Literary Supplement*

[This book] is a departure from the traditional treatise…and actually does take a large and long-awaited step toward revitalizing an exciting and important but inexcusably weak area of political science.
*American Political Science Review*

It is, without doubt, the finest book on the American police ever written, and Professor Wilson is one of our best-known scholars of urban affairs… Rich…full to the brim with increasing details and shrewd insight. Anyone who wants to have an informed opinion about the policeman’s relations to law and order ought to read it.
*Irving Kristol*