THE NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY,

BHOPAL

CRIMINOLOGY

FOURTH TRIMESTER

PROJECT ON

CESARE BECCARIA: A STUDY OF HIS IDEAS AND THOUGHTS

ON CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY

PROF. G.S. BAJPAI NIMISHA JHA

ROLL NO.: 2009BALLB01

ENROLMENT NO.: A-0863

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................03

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN CRIMINOLOGY.............................................................04

CESARE BACCARIA: A LIFE HISTORY........................................................................08

CESARE BACCARIA ON HUMAN NATURE.................................................................10

CESARE BACCARIA ON SOCIAL CONTRACT...........................................................11

CESARE BACCARIA ON GOVERNMENT.....................................................................11

CESARE BACCARIA ON LAW.........................................................................................12

CESARE BACCARIA ON RIGHTS OF OFFENDERS...................................................15

CESARE BACCARIA ON CRIME AND PUNISHMENT..............................................16

CONTRIBUTIONS OF CESARE BACCARIA IN THE CONTEMPORARY

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM........................................................................................21

RELEVANCE OF BACCARIAN IDEAS AND THOUGHTS TODAY........................22

BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................25

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 INTRODUCTION

In 1764, he published Dei Deliti e Delle Pene ("On Crimes and Punishments") arguing for
the need to reform the criminal justice system by referring not to the harm caused to the
victim, but to the harm caused to society.

In this, he posited that the greatest deterrent was the certainty of detection: the more swift
and certain the punishment, the more effective it would be. It would also allow a less serious
punishment to be effective if shame and an acknowledgement of wrongdoing was a
guaranteed response to society's judgment.

Thus, the prevention of crime was achieved through a proportional system that was clear
and simple to understand, and if the entire nation united in their own defence.

His approach influenced the codification movement which set sentencing tariffs to ensure
equality of treatment among offenders.

Later, it was acknowledged that not all offenders are alike and greater sentencing discretion
was allowed to judges.

Thus, punishment works at two levels. Because it punishes individuals, it operates as a

specific deterrence to those convicted not to reoffend. But the publicity surrounding the trial
and the judgment of society represented by the decision of a jury of peers, offers a general
example to the public of the consequences of committing a crime. If they are afraid of
similarly swift justice, they will not offend.

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 SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN CRIMINOLOGY

In the mid-18th century, criminology arose as social philosophers gave thought to crime and
concepts of law. Over time, several schools of thought have developed. It is important to
note, that while there have been numerous schools of criminological thought throughout
history, for the most part, the newer schools were a revitalization of the former and not a
competing point of view. The current school most criminologists belong to is the Chicago
School; however, there are still a great many who feel that a sub-cultural theory of deviance
is the better explanation of criminogenesis.

CLASSICAL SCHOOL

The Classical School, which developed in the mid 17th century, was based on utilitarian
philosophy. Cesare Beccaria, author of On Crimes and Punishments (1763–64), Jeremy
Bentham, inventor of the panopticon, and other classical school philosophers argued that

(1) People have free will to choose how to act.

(2) Deterrence is based upon the notion of the human being as a 'hedonist' who seeks
pleasure and avoids pain, and a 'rational calculator' weighing up the costs and benefits of the
consequences of each action. Thus, it ignores the possibility of irrationality and unconscious
drives as motivational factors

(3) Punishment (of sufficient severity) can deter people from crime, as the costs (penalties)
outweigh benefits, and that severity of punishment should be proportionate to the crime.

(4) The more swift and certain the punishment, the more effective it is in deterring criminal
behaviour.

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The Classical school of thought came about at a time when major reform in penology
occurred, with prisons developed as a form of punishment. Also, this time period saw many
legal reforms, the French Revolution, and the development of the legal system in the United
States.

POSITIVIST SCHOOL

The Positivist school presumes that criminal behaviour is caused by internal and external
factors outside of the individual's control. The scientific method was introduced and applied
to study human behaviour. Positivism can be broken up into three segments which include
biological, psychological and social positivism.

ITALIAN SCHOOL

Cesare Lombroso, an Italian prison doctor working in the late 19th century and sometimes
regarded as the "father" of criminology, was one of the largest contributors to biological
positivism and founder of the Italian school of criminology. Lombroso took a scientific
approach, insisting on empirical evidence, for studying crime. Considered as the founder of
criminal anthropology, he suggested that physiological traits such as the measurements of
one's cheek bones or hairline, or a cleft palate, considered to be throwbacks to Neanderthal
man, were indicative of "atavistic" criminal tendencies. This approach, influenced by the
earlier theory of phrenology and by Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, has been
superseded.

Enrico Ferri, a student of Lombroso, believed that social as well as biological factors
played a role, and held the view that criminals should not be held responsible when factors
causing their criminality were beyond their control. Criminologists have since rejected
Lombroso's biological theories, with control groups not used in his studies.

LACASSANE SCHOOL

Lombroso's Italian school was rivalled, in France, by Alexandre Lacassagne and his school
of thought, based in Lyon and influential from 1885 to 1914.

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The Lacassagne School rejected Lombroso's theory of "criminal type" and of "born
criminals", and strained the importance of social factors. However, contrary to
criminological tendencies influenced by Durkheim's social determinism, it did not reject
biological factors. Indeed, Lacassagne created an original synthesis of both tendencies,
influenced by positivism, phrenology and hygienism, which alleged a direct influence of the
social environment on the brain and compared the social itself to a brain, upholding an
organicist position. Furthermore, Lacassagne criticized the lack of efficiency of prison,
insisted on social responsibilities toward crime and on political voluntarism as a solution to
crime, and thus advocated harsh penalties for those criminals thought to be unredeemable
("recidivists") for example by supporting the 1895 law on penal colonies or opposing the
abolition of the death penalty in 1906.

Hans Eysenck (1964, 1977), a British psychologist, claimed that psychological factors such
as extraversion and neuroticism made a person more likely to commit criminal acts. He also
includes a psychoticism dimension that includes traits similar to the psychopathic profile,
developed by Hervey M. Cleckley and later Robert Hare. He also based his model on early
parental socialization of the child; his approach bridges the gap between biological
explanations and environmental or social learning based approaches.

SOCIOLOGICAL POSITIVISM

Sociological positivism postulates that societal factors such as poverty, membership of

subcultures, or low levels of education can predispose people to crime. Adolphe Quetelet
made use of data and statistical analysis to gain insight into relationship between crime and
sociological factors. He found that age, gender, poverty, education, and alcohol consumption
were important factors related to crime.

Rawson W. Rawson utilized crime statistics to suggest a link between population density
and crime rates, with crowded cities creating an environment conducive for crime.

Joseph Fletcher and John Glyde also presented papers to the Statistical Society of London
on their studies of crime and its distribution.

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Henry Mayhew used empirical methods and an ethnographic approach to address social
questions and poverty, and presented his studies in London Labour and the London Poor.

Émile Durkheim viewed crime as an inevitable aspect of society, with uneven distribution of
wealth and other differences among people.

CHICAGO SCHOOL

It is the concept in which individuals learn to recover from the effects of criminal behaviour
and bring about justice in the work of criminology.

The Chicago school arose in the early twentieth century, through the work of Robert E.
Park, Ernest Burgess, and other urban sociologists at the University of Chicago. In the
1920s, Park and Burgess identified five concentric zones that often exist as cities grow,
including the "zone in transition" which was identified as most volatile and subject to
disorder.

In the 1940s, Henry McKay and Clifford R. Shaw focused on juvenile delinquents, finding
that they were concentrated in the zone of transition.

Chicago School sociologists adopted a social ecology approach to studying cities, and
postulated that urban neighbourhoods with high levels of poverty often experience
breakdown in the social structure and institutions such as family and schools. This results in
social disorganization, which reduces the ability of these institutions to control behaviour
and creates an environment ripe for deviant behaviour.

Other researchers suggested an added social-psychological link. Edwin Sutherland

suggested that people learn criminal behaviour from older, more experienced criminals that
they may associate with.

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 CESARE BACCARIA: A LIFE HISTORY

Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria-Bonesana (March 12, 1738 – November 28, 1794) was an
Italian philosopher and politician best known for his treatise On Crimes and Punishments
(1764), which condemned torture and the death penalty, and was a founding work in the field
of penology.

Cesare Beccaria was born on March 15, 1738 into an Aristocratic family in Milan Italy. He
received a Jesuit education, and achieved his degree in 1758.

In 1761, he married Teresa di Blasco against his parents’ wishes.

At this time he also had two very close friends. Friends Pietro and Alessandro Verri, and
they together formed a society later known as the "academy of fists". This group was
"dedicated to waging relentless war against economic disorder, bureaucratic petty tyranny,
religious narrow-mindedness, and intellectual pedantry" (Paolucci, pg.xii).

With the encouragement of the "academy of fists", Beccaria started to read the enlightened
authors of France and England, and while he said very little, he did write essays that his
friends assigned him. His first publication was "On Remedies for the Monetary Disorders of
Milan in the Year 1762."

The French intellectuals warmly welcomed Beccaria’s treatise, "On Crimes and
Punishments" , and he was subsequently invited to go to Paris. Upon arriving in Paris, it was
clear that Beccaria did not fit in with the other enlightened intellectuals.

The intellectuals thought of him as "childish imbecile without backbone and unable of living
away from his mother. Beccaria left Paris without finishing his trip. After Paris he distanced
himself from his friends and stopped being part of the "academy of fists" He went to Austria
where he was not so well known and worked quietly for the Austrian government. Away
from the support of his friends, he never wrote anything else that was worthy of publication.

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In November 1768, Beccaria was appointed to the chair of law and economy founded
expressly for him at the Palatine college of Milan.

His lectures on political economy, which are based on strict utilitarian principles, are in
marked accordance with the theories of the English school of economists. They are published
in the collection of Italian writers on political economy.

Beccaria never succeeded in producing a work to match Dei Delitti e Delle Pene, although he
made various incomplete attempts in the course of his life.

A short treatise on literary style was all he saw to press.

In 1771, Beccaria was made a member of the supreme economic council; and in 1791 he was
appointed to the board for the reform of the judicial code, where he made a valuable
contribution.

Beccaria died in 1794.

After his death his legend in France and England grew. Many people at that time thought that
Beccaria was silenced by the suppression of a tyrannical government. They did not care to
know or admit that he brought the silence upon himself.

Beccaria is still remembering today as a father of classical criminal theory, and as a literally
champion of the cause of humanity.

His treatise, "On Crimes and Punishments" had a large and lasting impact on the American
Constitution, the Bill of Rights and our criminal justice system.

So while he only wrote one worthy, published essay, his influence is still felt today.

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 CESARE BACCARIA ON HUMAN NATURE

There are three main legs in which Beccaria’s theory rests. Those are that all individuals
possess freewill, rational manner and manipulability.

Beccaria, like all classical theorist, believe that all individuals have freewill and make
choices on that freewill.

The second leg, rational manner, means that all individuals rationally look out for their own
personal satisfaction. This is the key to the relationship between laws and crime. While
individuals will rationally look for their best interest, and this might entail deviant acts and
the law, which goal is to preserve the social contract, will try to stop deviant acts. This ends
up with the individuals and the society rationally looking for satisfaction, and at times these
interests clash.

The third leg in which Beccaria’s theory rest is manipulability, universally shared human
motive of rational self-interest makes human action predictable, generalable and
controllable.

The job of the criminal justice system is to control all deviant acts that an individual with
freewill and rational thought might do in the pursuit of personal pleasure. This is made easier
by the fact that human actions are predicable and controllable. With the right punishment or
threat the criminal justice system can control the free willed and rational human being. The
problem the criminal justice system has is finding the right punishment or threats.

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 CESARE BACCARIA ON SOCIAL CONTRACT

Baccaria was also influenced by the Social Contract Theory as propounded by Hobbes and
Locke and thus propounded the idea of government which was absent at that time. Baccaria
said “when people lived without government, so there is no fixed state and a period of
perpetual warfare.”

CESARE BACCARIA ON GOVERNMENT

He propounded the theory of legitimate government.

The idea was to make such a government which would secure peace, security and happiness
to the people, when they have surrendered their certain rights in favour of the government.

The government was the sum of individual promises, a repository of individual promises.

The government is legitimate but cannot do whatever it pleases. The reason being, the people
have agreed to forego only a part of their rights for the formation of the government.

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 CESARE BACCARIA ON LAW

Beccaria expresses not only the need for the criminal justice system, but also the
government’s right to have laws and punishments. He believes in the social contract, or the
idea that freewill and rational individuals made a choice to live in a society instead of living
alone. When one chooses to live in a society, then one chooses to give up some personal
liberties in exchange for the safety and comfort of a society.

Laws are designed as the framework of the society and the rules for which acts are
encouraged or prohibited. Laws are the conditions of a society of free willed and rational
individuals.

There is a need to have some system set up in order to ensure that the individuals in the
society are protected against any individual or groups that want to take back the personal
liberties forfeited in the social contract and those who want to also harm the personal
liberties of others in the society.

In "On Crimes and Punishments" Beccaria states, "but merely to have established this
deposit was not enough; it had to be defended against private usurpation by individuals each
of whom always tries not only to withdraw his own share but also to usurp for himself that of
others". So there is a need for and a right to have laws and a criminal justice system to ensure
that all individuals in society obey or follow the social contract.

Beccaria felt that while there needs to be a government and a criminal justice system if there
is to be a civilized society, he did not believe that the current government or criminal justice
system was appropriate.

He felt that the government at that time were just a "few remnants of the laws of an ancient
predatory people, compiled for a monarch who ruled twelve centuries ago in Constantinople,
mixed subsequently with Longobardic tribal customs, and bound together in chaotic volumes
of obscure and unauthorized interpreters".

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The criminal justice system was not anymore enlightened than the government. He felt that
the criminal laws and especially the "barbarous" punishments of the time were in need of
reform. His treatise, "On Crimes and Punishments" aimed at creating a blueprint for which
the new enlightened criminal justice system would be based.

One thing that is essential to any laws regarding criminal justice is that the laws be created by
a "dispassionate student of human nature". He stated that many of the present laws were just
"a mere tool of the passions of some, or have arisen from an accidental and temporary need".

Instead of laws created out of passions, Beccaria stresses the importance of to create laws
for the "greatest happiness shared by the greatest number".

To ensure that laws of that nature were formed, an educated and enlightened male should
create the laws that would benefit the entire community, and he should do so without looking
for only his benefit or passions. Laws should be enlightened, rational, and logical and should
be the greatest good for the greatness number. He felt that criminal laws should be formed
with rational thought and not passions.

With the creation of criminal laws and a criminal justice system, a rational form of
punishment must also be created. Beccaria was very much against the cruel and arbitrary
punishments of the day, but he did feel that the government had the right and duty to punish
those individuals that threatened the society. The government had only the right to inflict
punishments that were necessary for the crime, he stated, "for a punishment to attain its end,
the evil which it inflicts has only to exceed the advantage derivable from the crime; in this
excess of evil one should include the certainly of punishment and the loss of the good which
the crime might have produced. All beyond this is superfluous and for that reason
tyrannical".

So while the government could punish it could not go over than what was necessary for the
security of the society.

Beccaria goes even further on his criminological theory, and he gives many examples of how
the system should work. He gives the particular principles that a just government would use
to maintain the security of the society.

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He discussed the arrests, court hearings, detention, prison, death penalty, particular crimes
and crime prevention.

One the first parts of the criminal justice system that Beccaria discusses is the role the courts
play in obtaining justice.

Some rules that Beccaria writes about are that: laws must be set by legislators, legislators
cannot judge persons, judges in criminal cases cannot interpret the laws, laws must be clear
and in need of no interpretation, offenders must be judge by its peers (half of the victim half
of the criminal), right of the criminal to refuse some jurors, no secret accusation by
government, judges should be impartial searcher of truths and judges should not become
part of the treasury so that they do not look to criminals to make money.

He stresses the importance of laws being clear and known because a rational person cannot
make a rational choice not to commit an act if he or she does not know that the act is
prohibited.

He stated that, "when the number of those who can understand the sacred code of laws and
hold it in their hands increases, the frequency of crimes will be found to decrease, for
undoubtedly ignorance and uncertainly of punishments add much to the eloquence of the
passions".

If laws are clear, need no interpretation and are known to the public than crime will go
down.

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 CESARE BECCARIA ON RIGHTS OF OFFENDERS

Beccaria goes further and gives rules and principles for the rights of the offender once
arrested. Some of these include: imprisonment before conviction is important and accepted,
certainty is demanded if they are to deserve punishment, laws should forbid leading or
suggestive questions in trial, no torture to receive a confession and the right for the criminal
to defend himself if certainty is found, but not so long as to make the punishment not prompt.

Beccaria wrote that oaths were useless, because it will not make liar tell the truth, "every
judge can be my wittiness that no oath ever make any criminal tell the truth", and he wrote
that "it is frivolous to insist that women are too weak to be good witnesses".

Also if an individual is going to be imprisoned before the trial the offenders of harsh crimes
should be have less time in trial but more time in prison if found guilty.

If an individual is imprisoned for a less harsh crime, they should be afforded longer time in
trial but less time in prison after found guilty.

This is because the offender of the harsh crime is more likely to be found not guilty, and thus
the time imprisoned while in trial should be minimized.

When it comes to torture to obtain a confession, Beccaria had very strong words against this
practice. He believes that torture to obtain a confession makes an innocent man suffer a
punishment he did not deserve or was yet proved . Torture also makes a weak person more
likely to confess to a crime than a strong person, without consideration of guilt.

The confessions from torture should not be valid since an innocent man might confess just to
stop torture, and a person might implicate innocent accomplices. Confessions obtained with
torture might make a weak, innocent individual suffer punishment he did not deserve, and it
might make a strong, guilty man by not confessing be reward for committing a crime.

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CESARE BACCARIA ON CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Contemporary political philosophers distinguish between two principle theories of justifying

punishment.

First, the retributive approach maintains that punishment should be equal to the harm done,
either literally an eye for an eye, or more figuratively which allows for alternative forms of
compensation. The retributive approach tends to be retaliatory and vengeance-oriented.

The second approach is utilitarian which maintains that punishment should increase the total
amount of happiness in the world. This often involves punishment as a means of reforming
the criminal, incapacitating him from repeating his crime, and deterring others.

Beccaria clearly takes a utilitarian stance. For Beccaria, the purpose of punishment is to
create a better society, not revenge. Punishment serves to deter others from committing
crimes, and to prevent the criminal from repeating his crime.

Beccaria argues that punishment should be swift since this has the greatest deterrence value.
He defends his view about the swiftness of punishment by appealing to the theory of the
association of ideas (developed most notably by David Hume and David Hartley).
According to associationists, if we know the rules by which the mind connects together two
different ideas (such as the ideas of crime and punishment), then we can strengthen their
association.

For Beccaria when a punishment quickly follows a crime, then the two ideas of “crime” and
“punishment” will be more quickly associated in a person’s mind.

Also, the link between a crime and a punishment is stronger if the punishment is somehow
related to the crime.

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Given the fact that the swiftness of punishment has the greatest impact on deterring others,
Beccaria argues that there is no justification for severe punishments. “In time we will
naturally grow accustomed to increases in severity of punishment, and, thus, the initial
increase in severity will lose its effect. There are limits both to how much torment we can
endure, and also how much we can inflict”.

With the creation of criminal laws and a criminal justice system, a rational form of
punishment must also be created. Beccaria was very much against the cruel and arbitrary
punishments of the day, but he did feel that the government had the right and duty to punish
those individuals that threatened the society.

The government had only the right to inflict punishments that were necessary for the crime,
he stated, "for a punishment to attain its end, the evil which it inflicts has only to exceed the
advantage derivable from the crime; in this excess of evil one should include the certainly of
punishment and the loss of the good which the crime might have produced. All beyond this is
superfluous and for that reason tyrannical"( pg. 43). So while the government could punish it
could not go over than what was necessary for the security of the society.

To determine what amount of punishment is necessary of safety and what is excessive, the
legislators the "dispassionate student(s) of human nature" must define the punishments for
each crime. Since members of society of rational human beings with freewill, they will
commit acts if the pleasure of the act outweighs the cost.

To stop individuals from committing prohibited acts, punishments must be set to make the
punishment just over the amount of pleasure the individuals receive from the deviant acts.

Any punishment that grossly or even slightly goes over the amount necessary to stop
individuals from committing prohibited acts would be considered unjust.

Beccaria had many things to write concerning the principles of punishment if once an
individual is found guilty of committing a crime. The two main principles are that to be
effective punishments must be certain and prompt. He states that, "the certainty of a
punishment, even if it be moderate , will always make a stronger impression than the fear of
another which is more terrible but combined with the hope of impunity".

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To build the connection between the crime and the punishment it is essential that the
punishment is prompt. It is written in the treatise of "On Crimes and Punishments" that "the
more promptly and the more closely punishment follows upon the commission of a crime, the
more just and useful will it be". In order for a punishment to be effective in stopping further
crimes the punishment must be certain and prompt.

Other principles of punishments are written in the treatise. These include, there should be a
set amount of incarceration for each crime, individual should be punished for attempting to
commit a crime, accomplices working together on a crime should be punished equally,
harsher the crime the harsher the punishment, crimes against persons should be corporal
and crimes of theft should be fines.

Beccaria was a strong opponent to the death penalty, for he felt that a laborious loss of
liberty was harsher than a quick death. He also stated about the death penalty that, " it seems
to me absurd that the laws , which are an expression of the public will, which detest and
punish homicide, should themselves commit it, and that to deter citizens from murder they
order a public one". Beccaria felt that the death penalty, while cruel and excessive, it also
was an ineffective measure to reduce or punish crime.

In On Crimes and Punishments Beccaria presents one of the first sustained critiques of the
use of capital punishment. Briefly, his position is that capital punishment is not necessary to
deter, and long term imprisonment is a more powerful deterrent since execution is transient.

He starts by describing the connection between the social contract and our right to life.
Locke argued that people forfeit their right to life when they initiate a state of war with other
people. Beccaria disagrees.

Following Hobbes, Beccaria believes that, in the social contract, “we negotiate away only
the minimal number of rights necessary to bring about peace”. Thus, people hold onto their
right to life, and do not hand this over to the public good.

Given the fact that capital punishment cannot be justified by Locke’s reasoning, Beccaria
argues that the only other justification is that it is either necessary or useful for public good.
He contests both of these claims.

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For Beccaria, history shows that capital punishment fails to deter determined criminals.
What we know about human nature also suggests that it has minimal deterrence value. A
steady example over a long period of time is more effective in creating moral habits than is a
single shocking example of an execution. Beccaria argues that perpetual slavery is a more
effective deterrent than capital punishment. Since we should choose the least severe
punishment which accomplishes our purpose (that is, deterrence), then perpetual slavery is
the preferred mode of punishment for the worst crimes. From the spectator’s perspective,
observing perpetual slavery will have a more lasting impression than capital punishment.
Perpetual slavery will also seem more terrible from the vantage of the spectator, than from
the criminal himself.

Beccaria explains the psychology of the criminal who wishes to return to the state of nature
in view of the gross inequity between the rich and the poor. Again, perpetual slavery is the
best deterrence against this motivation.

Beccaria argues further that the death penalty in fact has bad effects on society by reducing
their sensitivity to human suffering. Potential criminals see it as one more method of
perpetuating tyranny. Although capital punishment is practiced in most countries, it is still an
error which in time will become rare. He urges rulers to adopt his stance against capital
punishment, and predicts that this will give them a lasting fame as peacemakers.

For a rational system of criminal justice to work, punishment must be certain, swift, and
proportional. The ultimate goal was to insure that the benefits of crime never outweighed
the potential pain from punishments the offender would receive.

As rational, calculating human beings, most would avoid crime under such a system.

Certainty required that all offenders be punished; the more criminals who escaped
punishment the less the impact on the minds of others contemplating such behaviour.

Swiftness was also important. If too long a time elapsed between the crime and its
punishment, this would also lessen the deterrent effect on future criminality.

Beccaria’s emphasis on proportionality led him to oppose the use of the death penalty for all
but the some serious crime. Capital punishment would have no impact if its use were for
minor offenses.

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In the treatise, "On Crimes and Punishments", Beccaria wrote a short chapter on preventing
crime because he thought that preventing crime was better than punishing them. He gave
nine principles that need to be in place in order to effectively prevent crime.

To prevent crime a society must:

1) Make sure laws are clear and simple,

2) make sure that the entire nation is united in defence,

3) Laws not against classes of men, but of men,

4) Men must fear laws and nothing else,

5) Certainty of outcome of crime,

6) Member of society must have knowledge because enlightenment accompanies liberty,

7) Reward virtue,

8) Perfect education,

9) Direct the interest of the magistracy as a whole to observance rather than corruption of the
laws.

If these nine principles are followed there would be less of a need to follow the other
principles of trial and punishments.

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 CONTRIBUTIONS OF CESARE BACCARIA TO THE
CONTEMPORARY CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

 Doing away with indeterminate sentencing and its replacement with various forms of
determinate sentencing, including sentencing guidelines, mandatory sentences,
habitual offender statutes, etc.
 Truth in sentencing. One should serve one's full sentence and not receive an early
release through parole or prison overflow control policies.
 Beccaria opposed the death penalty as a punishment so severe it would have no
deterrent effect.
 Doing away with the exclusionary rule altogether or the allowing of additional "good
faith" exceptions for law enforcement infringements an defendants' due process
rights.
 Continued research on criminal behaviour predicated the idea of free will. It
examines phenomenon such as criminal career choices. For example, why would an
offender choose to shoplift rather than commit robberies? Why do some career
criminals finally decide to stop and become honest productive citizens? He suggested
crime to be a conscious act.
 It is necessary to prove the guilt beyond reasonable doubt. He was the pioneer in
shaping, evolving and developing the theory.
 Adversarial system of trial was suggested by him because earlier the accused were not
treated fairly and generally sentenced without trial.
 He suggested that the application of law should be equal for all without any
discrimination on the basis of caste, class or community.
 He suggested about the rights of a man which are protected even in prisons during
his imprisonment and should not be violated upon. Imprisonment meant curtailment
of liberty and not to lose human dignity.

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 THE RELEVANCE OF BACCARIAN

IDEAS AND THOUGHTS TODAY

The classical view of criminology has been steadily growing in popularity this decade. The
criminological theory of Rational Choice takes many of the Classical ideas and makes them
more relative to today’s issues. Rational Choice theory believes in freewill, individuals make
rational choice to commit crimes, people use the pleasure/pain to make rational choices,
people will choice choices that increase their pleasure.

The government has the right and duty to preserve the common good and the society, swift,
severe and certain punishment will give the government control over the peoples’ choices and
behaviour, deterrence and the use of incarceration and punishment to prevent crime.

Rational Choice theory also deals with the issues of general and specific deterrence, the use
of incarceration and "just desserts".

General deterrence is that the general public will not commit crimes due to a fear of getting
caught, prosecuted and severely punished.

Specific deterrence is using punishments to prevent a known deviant from committing future
crime or said that if a criminal receives enough punishment for committing an act, that
criminal will not commit that act again.

Incarceration is the use of prisons to punish criminal, and by taking them out of society,
criminal are prevented from committing in new harm. "Just desserts" simply means that an
individual commits a deviant act then they deserve to be punished by the government.

Beccaria did not write in depth about general and specific deterrence, but he did write in a
general manner about the use of laws and punishment, if certain and prompt, can deter the
general public and specific criminals from committing crimes.

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Beccaria also supports the Rational Choice Theory of the use of incarceration and "just
desserts" for in these topics main concepts in his treatise, On Crime and Punishments.

In studying the recent theory of Rational Choice, one can see the large and lasting impact
that Beccaria had on the field of criminology.

In recent policies that have been influenced by Beccaria’s work and his ideas are truth in
sentencing, determinant sentences, swift punishments, corporal punishments, look at crime
not criminal, punishment not treatment, people rationally choose crime and less judicial
discretion.

While not all state governments have adopted all these ideas, most have and many are about
to follow.

Some of the recent policies go against the ideas of Beccaria these are longer sentences, three
strikes and you are out laws, death penalty and gun control.

While many of his ideas about human nature and policies on controlling crime have grown in
popularity, still many of his ideas are very unpopular.

The recent trend of more gun control goes against Beccaria’s idea about citizens’ right to
bear arms.

In writing about the utility of gun control, he writes, " false is the idea of utility that
sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience’ that
would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has
no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of
such a nature. They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit
crimes". Today many opponents of the gun control laws use Beccaria’s warning as a battle
cry. Many use his words, along with the words of other theorists of the time, Thomas
Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and James Madison, to support their right to bear arms.

In 1764, the unknown Cesare Beccaria wrote one short treatise called "On Crimes and
Punishments" and the world is still using it to guide criminal justice.

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That short essay greatly impacted the United States’ Constitution, Bill of Rights and justice
system.

Many reforms that Beccaria called for were incorporated into our system, and his influence
stretches from arrest, prosecution and punishment. He never wrote anything else or expanded
on his thoughts about crime so many answers will never be answered.

Beccaria’s work "On Crimes and Punishments" has become the foundation in which
many criminology theories use to build and expand.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Beccaria

http://www.constitution.org/cb/beccaria_bio.htm

http://www.iep.utm.edu/beccaria/

http://www.crimetheory.com/Archive/Beccaria/index.html

http://www.constitution.org/cb/crim_pun.htm

And the lectures delivered and text material supplied form a part of this project.

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