JAMES JACOBS

1947 - 2020

JACOBS--James B., an influential legal scholar credited with leading New York University School of Law's criminal law department to rank number one in the nation, died on March 19 of Lou Gehrig's Disease. He was 72. Jacobs was a prolific author, publishing 17 books and hundreds of articles throughout his career. His first book and PhD dissertation - "Stateville: The Penitentiary in Mass Society" - was a seminal piece of work in the field of criminal justice, and one of the first to explore incarceration through the lens of both the incarcerated and prison administrators and employees. The book remains a classic in crimi- nology classrooms today. Dr. Jacobs, the Warren E. Burger Chair of Constitutional Law and the Courts, served on the faculty of NYU for 38 years. He had a knack for identi- fying legal and academic talent, mentoring and recruiting what would become a consortium of the country's leading criminal law scholars which this year ranked number one in the nation by U.S. News and World Reports. He established the Center for Research in Crime and Justice at the law school in 1983. The Center's weekly Goldstock Criminal Law Faculty Seminar, as well as the monthly Hoffinger Colloquium lectures, served as magnets for the country's leading legal minds - including judges, prosecutors, researchers, policymakers and practitioners. An indefatigable researcher, Jacobs was a leading expert in specialties as varied as they were fascinating - drunk driving, the mob, corruption, incarceration, hate crimes, and gun control, to name but a few - lending his expertise in academic forums across Asia, Europe and Africa. Known for his intellectual rigor and piercing insight, he served on the board of several influential criminal justice organizations - from the American Society of Criminology to the National Institute of Corrections. In 2012, he received a lifetime achievement award from the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime and was named a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellow in 2012 - 2013. Jim was born in Bronxville, NY in 1947, the first born son of Milton and Freda Jacobs, and grew up in Mt. Vernon. He graduated with a B.A., in sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 1969, a JD in 1973 and a Ph.D., in 1975 from the University of Chicago. He served on the faculties of Cornell's Law School and Sociology Department from 1975 to 1982 before joining the NYU Law faculty in 1982. He was also visiting professor at Columbia Law School, and Leuven University, Belgium, and a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Cape Town. His passionate contributions to legal academia were matched by his love of culture - particularly the opera, ballet, symphony and theater - and the outdoors (an avid skier, several hip replacements couldn't keep Jim off the slopes). Jim is survived by Jan, his wife of 42 years, his children Tom and Sophi, his daughter-in-law Caroline, his son-in-law Jonathan, his granddaughters Anna, Alma, Rowan and Aurora, his brother Dan, his sister-in-law Nancy, and his nieces Ali, Vanessa, Julia and Jackie. He will be deeply missed.