Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)

In 1764, Beccaria 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.
In his book "On Crimes and Punishments" Beccaria presented a coherent, comprehensive design for
an enlightened criminal justice system that was to serve the people rather than the monarchy.
According to Beccaria, the crime problem could be traced not to bad people but to bad laws. A
modern criminal justice system should guarantee all people equal treatment before the law.
Beccaria‘s book supplied the blue print. That blue print was based on the assumption that people
freely choose what they do and are responsible for the consequences of their behavior. Beccaria
proposed the following principles:
Laws Should Be Used To Maintain Social Contract: “Laws are the conditions under which
men, naturally independent, united themselves in society. Weary of living in a continual state of war,
and of enjoying a liberty, which became a little
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value, from the uncertainty of its duration, they sacrificed one part of it, to enjoy the rest in peace and
security.‖
Only Legislators Should Create Laws: “The authority of making penal laws can only reside with
the legislator, who represents the whole society united by the social compact.‖
Judges Should Impose Punishment only in Accordance with the Law: ―[N]o magistrate then,
(as he is one of the society), can, with justice inflict on any other member of the same society
punishment that is not ordained by the laws.‖
Judges Should not Interpret the Laws: ―Judges, in criminal cases, have no right to interpret the
penal laws, because they are not legislators….Everyman has his own particular point of view and, at
different times, sees the same objects in very different lights. The spirit of the laws will then be the
result of the good or bad logic of the judge; and this will depend on his good or bad digestion.‖
Punishment Should be Based on the Pleasure/Pain Principle: ―Pleasure and pain are the only
springs of actions in beings endowed with sensibility….If an equal punishment be ordained for two
crimes that injure society in different degrees, there is nothing to deter men from committing the
greater as often as it is attended with greater advantage.‖
Punishment Should be Based on the Act, not on the Actor: ―Crimes are only to be measured
by the injuries done to the society they err, therefore, who imagine that a crime is greater or less
according to the intention of the person by whom it is committed.‖
The Punishment Should be Determined by the Crime: ―If mathematical calculation could be
applied to the obscure and infinite combinations of human actions, there might be a corresponding
scale of punishment descending from the greatest to the least.‖
Punishment Should be Prompt and Effective: ―The more immediate after the commission of a
crime a punishment is inflicted the more just and useful it will be….An immediate punishment is
more useful; because the smaller the interval of time between the punishment and the crime, the
stronger and more lasting will be the association of the two ideas of crime and punishment.‖
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 All People Should be Treated Equally: ―I assert that the punishment of a noble man should in
no wise differ from that of the lowest member of the society.‖
Capital Punishment Should be Abolished: ―The punishment of death is not authorized by any
right; for….no such right exists….The terrors of death make so slight an impression, that it has not
force enough to withstand forgetfulness natural to mankind.‖
The Use of Torture to Gain Confessions Should be Abolished: ―It is confounding all relations
to expect…that pain should be the test of truth, as if truth resided in the muscles and fibers a wretch
in torture. By this method the robust will escape, and the feeble be condemned.‖
It is Better to Prevent Crime than to Punish Them: ―Would you prevent crimes? Let the laws
be clear and simple, let the entire force of the nation be united in their defence, let them be intended
rather to favour every individual than any particular classes…. Finally, the most certain method of
preventing crimes to perfect the system of education.‖

Perhaps no other book in the history in the history of criminology has had so great an impact. After
the French Revolution, Beccaria‘s basic tenets served as a guide for the drafting of the French Penal
Code, which was adopted in 1791.