Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)
Italian criminologist Cesare Beccaria is credited as the "father of modern punishment", as his logic even to this day is influential to the legal codes of many countries. His most famed work, "On Crime and Punishment", although critical to the French Penal Code of 1791, was published anonymously for the fear of government backlash. To his surprise however, the treatise was well received: Catherine the Great publicly endorsed it, while thousands of miles away in the United States, founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams quoted it. Once it was clear that the government approved of his essay, Beccaria republished it, this time crediting himself as the author.
The cycle of crime and punishment, Beccaria describes, is natural. In his interpretation, law helps preserve the system of the social contract. But, because people act out of self-interest and interest conflicts with the societal laws, they commit crimes. The principle of manipulability refers to the predictable ways in which people act out of rational self-interest and might therefore be dissuaded from committing crimes if the punishment outweighs the benefits of the crime, rendering the crime an illogical choice. Beccaria urges the French system to reform, quoting from its barbaric and rather arbitrary form of punishment. He went on to discuss how specific laws should be formed, and the development of the new occupation of law makers. He emphasized the need for adequate but just punishment, and went so far as to explain how the system should define the appropriate punishment for each type of crime.
The cycle of crime and punishment, Beccaria describes, is natural. In his interpretation, law helps preserve the system of the social contract. But, because people act out of self-interest and interest conflicts with the societal laws, they commit crimes. The principle of manipulability refers to the predictable ways in which people act out of rational self-interest and might therefore be dissuaded from committing crimes if the punishment outweighs the benefits of the crime, rendering the crime an illogical choice. Beccaria urges the French system to reform, quoting from its barbaric and rather arbitrary form of punishment. He went on to discuss how specific laws should be formed, and the development of the new occupation of law makers. He emphasized the need for adequate but just punishment, and went so far as to explain how the system should define the appropriate punishment for each type of crime.