Jeremy Bentham ( 1748 – 1832)

• English Jurist, philosopher, and

legal and social reformer.

• Founder of modern
utilitarianism

• “ The greatest happiness of the

greatest number is the
foundation of morals and
legislation”
AN EARLY DEFENDER OF:
 Economic liberalization
 Freedom of Expression
 The separation of church and state
 Women’s rights
 Animal Rights
 The right to divorce
 The abolition of slavery
 The abolition of capital punishment
 The abolition of corporal punishment
 Prison Reform
 Decriminalization of homosexual Acts
Utilitarianism
HEDONISTIC CALCULUS
"Newgate is a dismal prison. . . a place of calamity. . .
habitation of misery, a confused chaos. . . a
bottomless pit of violence, a Tower of Babel where all
are speakers and none hearers"
(Captain Alexander Smith, 1717)
Newgate prison Gaols Committee Investigating Fleet Prison,
London
Religious and Humanitarian Prison
Reform
Panopticon Prison (1787-1791)
J. Bentham, Plan of the Panopticon Prison (1791)
 Cessare Beccaria ( 1738 – 1794)

• Italian Jurist, philosopher, politician, and

criminologist

• The state does not possess the right to

take lives

• Capital punishment is neither a useful nor

a necessary form of punishment

• “Crimes are more effectually prevented

by the certainty than the severity of
punishment”
SUMMARY

 Pain and pleasure dictate how people think they should behave,
and, more importantly, how they actually do behave
 Beccaria sees punishment as tools to prevent criminals from doing
more harm to society.
CONCLUSION

 People should act in a way that was the most beneficial for their
community, country, etc.
 Laws should also benefit most of society
 We have generally forsaken the death penalty and punish people
based on their crime.