Beccaria, C
Cesare, Marchese di Beccaria
ONELINER: Cesare Beccaria, early Italian criminologist
ACHIEVEMENT(S):
18th-century Italian criminologist, economist and reformer.
Born: March 15, 1738, atMilan, Italy (map)
Died: November 28, 1794, at Milan, Italy, aged 56
Italian
Law
Criminologist
Siblings: Two brothers, one sister
Spouse: Teresa Blasco (d. 1774), married 1761; remarried 1774
Children: Three (names unknown)
EDUCATION:
Parma Jesuit School, 1746-55; University of Pavia, 1755-58
MAJOR WORK:
'Crime and Punishment' 1764
LIFE AND TIMES:
In 1764, aged only 26, Beccaria published his great work, 'Dei delitti e delle pene' ('Crime and Punishment'), in which he eloquently argued against capital punishment and torture and in favour of humane and preventive measures such as education. It was hailed as a work of genius and in 1766 was translated and published in France, where it went through seven editions in six months. From 1767 translations into English, Danish, Polish, Spanish and Dutch followed, by which time Beccaria had become an international celebrity (an American edition was published in 1777).
In spite of its indebtedness to the ideas of such Enlightenment philosophers as Montesquieu*, Beccaria's treatise is the first systematic and concise treatment of the principles governing criminal punishment in relation to human rights. Opening the work with a call for the great need for reforms in the criminal justice system, Beccaria developed his position by appealing to two key philosophical theories: the social contract and utilitarianism. Beccaria argued that punishment is justified only as a means of defending the social contract and of ensuring that everyone is motivated to stick to it.Regarding utility (perhaps influenced by Helvetius*), Beccaria argued that the method of punishment selected should be that which serves the greatest public good as opposed to that which is retaliatory.
Appealing to the theory of the association of ideas (developed by the English philosophers Hume* ), he argued that, if a punishment quickly follows a crime, the two ideas of "crime and punishment" will be more effectively associated in a criminal’s mind, and provide the greatest deterrence. Beccaria also argued that, to strengthen this association, the punishment should be scaled to the importance of the offence. The objective of the penal system should be to fix penalties only severe enough to achieve the proper purposes of security and order, and that anything in excess of this is tyranny.In this Beccaria was the first modern writer to advocate the complete abolition of capital punishment (both because it fails as a deterrent, and because the taking of life is not necessary or useful for the public good) and urged governments to replace it with long-term imprisonment.
Beccaria also wrote on an array of other criminal justice practices, always recommending reform: duelling could be eliminated if laws protected a person from insults; laws against suicide were ineffective, and should be eliminated, leaving the punishment to God; bounty hunting should not be permitted since it incites people to be immoraland shows weakness in government. He also argued that laws should be made a great deal clearer in the definition of crimes so that judges should not need to interpret the law, but only decide whether a law has been broken.
Beccaria encouraged enlightened humanists, and in <--a fan was> 1765 Voltaire* wrote the preface for the French edition. With such an important endorsement, the book was then taken up by many of those in power, and his concepts not only influenced the lawmakers of the first French republic, but also such as Catherine the Great* of Russia, the utilitarian philosopher and reformer Jeremy Bentham* in England, and Jefferson* and the prison-architect Haviland* in the United States. In England, Bentham openly supported Beccaria's principles, legislative reforms in Russia, Sweden, and the Habsburg Empire were influenced by the treatise, and the legislation of several American states reflected Beccaria's thought. Within a generation, most European states had abolished the use of torture and imprisonment for debt, had reduced the number of capital offenses, and were beginning penal reform.
In 1768 he was appointed to the chair of public economy and commerce at the Palatine School in Milan, where he taught for two years, his lectures gaining him a great reputation as a pioneer in economic analysis, anticipating some of the ideas of Adam Smith* and Malthus* (such as the concept of the division of labor and the relation between food supply and population).In 1771 Beccaria was appointed to the Supreme Economic Council of Milan and remained a public official for the rest of his life. During these years he became concerned with a variety of issues, including monetary reform, labor relations, and public education. One report written by Beccaria influenced the subsequent adoption of the metric system in France.
ASSESSMENT: A major influence in the development of criminology and penal reform..
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: His work related to that of Gall & Spurzheim* the next stop on the Mystery Tour
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Encyclopedia Britanica.
Maestro, Marcello T., Cesare Beccaria and the Origins of Penal Reform, Philadelphia, 1973.
-