James Gilligan

James Gilligan
Carol and James Gilligan
Alma materHarvard College
OccupationProfessor
SpouseCarol Gilligan
Writing career
SubjectsPsychology, Violence, Crime

James Gilligan is an American expert on violence.[1] He is currently an adjunct professor of law at New York University School of Law and clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine.[2] The former director of the Harvard Institute of Law and Psychiatry, he is best known as the author of a series of books entitled Violence.[3]

Education

Gilligan obtained a BA from Harvard College in 1957, and trained at the Schools of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University (1961-1965), the University of Chicago (1965-1966), and Harvard University (1966-1969).[4]

Academic career

In 1966, Gilligan joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he served until 2000.[5] In 1977, Gilligan became the director of the Harvard Institute of Law and Psychiatry.[6]

In 1991 Gilligan was invited to deliver the Erikson Lectures at Harvard University on the roots of violence. During 1993 and 1994 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge in England, where he expanded his lectures into the book, Violence: Our Deadly Epidemic and Its Causes, published in 1996 by G. P. Putnam's Sons,[7] and republished in paperback in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1997 by Vintage Books and Jessica Kingsley.[8] In 1999, Gilligan was elected president of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy.[9]

Gilligan joined the faculty at New York University in 2002,[6] and served as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law and collegiate professor at New York University's College of Arts and Sciences.[10] Known for his use of English literature,[11] he lectured on the relationship between psychology, law and world literature, teaching the works of William Shakespeare, Joseph Conrad, Leo Tolstoy, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.[12]

Violence prevention

Massachusetts Prisons

In 1992, the U.S. District Court in Boston and the Massachusetts Supreme Court—reacting to an epidemic of suicides, homicides, riots, hostage-taking, arson, and mass rapes throughout the state prison system—concluded that much of the violence was the result of severe, undiagnosed, and untreated psychopathology, brought about by the pathogenic conditions within the prisons themselves, such as prolonged solitary confinement, beatings, death threats, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the absence of mental health services.[13] In response, the Boston and Massachusetts Courts ordered the state to bring the level of health care and violence prevention in the prisons up to community standards.[14]

The Massachusetts Department of Correction entered a contract with McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School to fulfill the obligation.[15] As the McLean Hospital clinician selected to serve as Medical Director of Bridgewater State Hospital, the Massachusetts Prison Hospital for the "criminally insane," and Clinical Director of Mental Health Services for state prisons, Dr. Gilligan supervised the training and clinical practice of Harvard psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals.[16] During his tenure as Medical Director of Bridgewater State Hospital, the team succeeded in preventing all further riots from the beginning of the program, and all hostage-taking by the fifth year of the program, reducing the rates of both suicide and homicide to zero for up to a year at a time throughout the state-wide prison system.[17]

Boston Miracle

In 1996, Paul F. Evans, Commissioner of the Boston Police Department, requested the Dr. Gilligan outline methods to end an epidemic of youth homicides, which tripled by the end of the 1990s.[18] In response, Gilligan organized a group of experts drawn from Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and the Kennedy School of Government to design an inter-disciplinary strategy, in collaboration with local clergy and churches, juvenile courts, educators in the Massachusetts school system, police, parole and probation officers, gun dealers, gang members, and families of at-risk youth, to end the epidemic of violence.[19] The program resulted in two and a half years without a single teenage or adult victim of homicide in the City of Boston, a phenomenon referred to as the "Boston Miracle."[20]

Personal life

Gilligan is the husband of American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist Carol Gilligan.[21]

Selected works

Books

  • Violence - Our Deadly Epidemic and Its Causes – 1996 [22]
  • Violence - Reflections on a National Epidemic – 1997[23]
  • Violence - Reflections on Our Deadliest Epidemic – 1999[24]
  • Violence - Reflections on a Western Epidemic – 2000[25]
  • Violence in California Prisons: A Proposal for Research into Patterns and Cures – 2000[26]
  • Preventing Violence – 2001[27]
  • Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous to Your Health Than Others – 2011 (ISBN 978-0745649818)[28][29]

References

  1. ↑ "Punishment Fails. Rehabilitation Works". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  2. ↑ "James Frederick Gilligan - Overview | NYU School of Law". its.law.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2026-08-15.
  3. ↑ Hedges, Chris (2022-07-22). "The Chris Hedges Report: Breaking the cycle of American violence". The Real News Network. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  4. ↑ "James Frederick Gilligan - Overview | NYU School of Law". its.law.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
  5. ↑ Silke, Andrew (2001). ""Violence: Reflections on Our Deadliest Epidemic" by James Gilligan". Psychology, Crime and Law. 7 (4): 357–359. doi:10.1080/10683160108401802. ISSN 1068-316X.
  6. 1 2 "James Gilligan | HuffPost". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2019-10-12.
  7. ↑ "Violence by James Gilligan: 9780679779124 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
  8. ↑ Cordess, Christopher (February 2001). "Violence: Reflections on Our Deadliest Epidemic By James Gilligan. London: Jessica Kingsley. 1999. 306 pp. £12.95 (pb). ISBN 1 85302 8428". The British Journal of Psychiatry. 178 (2): 185–187. doi:10.1192/bjp.178.2.185-a. ISSN 0007-1250.
  9. ↑ "Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic by James Gilligan". www.publishersweekly.com. Invalid date. Retrieved 2026-08-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ↑ "James Frederick Gilligan - Overview | NYU School of Law". Its.law.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-12.
  11. ↑ "Shame, Guilt, Violence, and Shakespeare: In a new book, David A.J. Richards and James Gilligan reveal what Shakespeare's plays teach about the motivations for and perpetuation of violence in the criminal legal system and beyond | NYU School of Law". www.law.nyu.edu. 2022-04-18. Retrieved 2026-08-15.
  12. ↑ "APB Speakers' Bureau - Speakers". Archived from the original on 2 December 2011. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  13. ↑ Lee, Dr Bandy X.; Gilligan, Dr James (2024-01-18). "Banning solitary stems violence". New York Daily News. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
  14. ↑ Duane, Daniel. "Straight Outta Boston". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
  15. ↑ Rempe, Steve (2016-09-20). "Are Violent Criminals Redeemable? - Prison Fellowship". Prison Fellowship. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  16. ↑ Gilligan, James (2016-04-02). "Can psychoanalysis help us to understand the causes and prevention of violence?". Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. 30 (2): 125–137. doi:10.1080/02668734.2016.1169768. ISSN 0266-8734.
  17. ↑ M.D, James Gilligan (2011-11-16). "A New Approach to Violence Treatment: An Interview with Dr. James Gilligan". PsychAlive. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
  18. ↑ F; r; e; s; h; A; i; r (1996-08-29). "Psychiatrist JAMES GILLIGAN". NPR. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  19. ↑ Henderson, Samantha; Peterson, Samuel; Engel, Robin (2017-12-01), Pulling Levers to Prevent Violence: "The Boston Miracle," Its Adaptations, and Future Directions for Research, Springer, pp. 281–296, ISBN 978-3-319-44122-1, retrieved 2026-08-24
  20. ↑ Johansson, Sandra (2018-12-06). "Boston's miracle: how America stopped young men killing each other". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-08-23.
  21. ↑ Ph.D, Carol Gilligan (2012-01-09). "A Relationship is a Creative Work: An Interview with Dr. James and Carol Gilligan". PsychAlive. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  22. ↑ "Violence: Our Deadly Epidemic and Its Causes". Isbn.nu.
  23. ↑ "Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic". Isbn.nu. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  24. ↑ "Violence". Uk.jkp.com. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  25. ↑ "Violence: Reflections on a Western Epidemic". Isbn.nu. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  26. ↑ "Violence in California Prisons: A Proposal for Research into Patterns and Cures". Isbn.nu. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  27. ↑ "Preventing Violence". Isbn.nu. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  28. ↑ "Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others". Isbn.nu. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  29. ↑ Hacker, Andrew. "We're More Unequal Than You Think | by Andrew Hacker". Nybooks.com. Retrieved 2019-10-12.

Further reading

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