The analysis and containment of organized crime in New York City and beyond: an interview with James B. Jacobs

Abstract

This email interview with James B. Jacobs was conducted during 2014. As a law student at University of Chicago in the early 1970s, Jacobs conducted a participant observation study at Stateville Penitentiary, Illinois’ largest and most notorious maximum security prison. That research resulted in his first major publication, “Street Gangs Behind Bars” published in Social Problems (1973). In 1975, after receiving his J.D. and Ph.D. (Sociology), Jacobs joined Cornell University as assistant professor of law and sociology. In 1977, the University of Chicago Press published his revised doctoral dissertation, Stateville; The Penitentiary in Mass Society (1977). In 1982, Jacobs moved to New York University (NYU) as professor of law and director of the Center for Research in Crime and Justice. In the mid 1980s, he served as consultant to the New York State Organized Crime Task Force’s investigation of corruption and racketeering in NYC’s construction industry. Jacobs was the draftsman of OCTF’s Final Report on Corruption and Racketeering in NYC’s Construction Industry (NYU Press, 1990). He subsequently published four additional volumes on organized crime and organized crime control, most recently Breaking the Devil’s Pact: The Battle to Free the Teamsters from the Mob (2011).