On Crimes and Punishments

A short treatise, published anonymously in Livorno in 1764 by a young Milanese nobleman, that became the most widely read case for reforming criminal law in Europe. Beccaria starts from the social contract: people surrender only the smallest portion of liberty needed for security, so any punishment beyond what is necessary is tyranny. His introduction speaks of the greatest happiness shared among the greatest number. Laws should be clear, public and made by the legislator, not stretched by judges' interpretation. Punishment must be proportionate to the harm done to society, and its aim is to deter future crime, not to take revenge. Certainty and speed of punishment deter more than severity. He condemns torture, which tests endurance rather than truth, and secret accusations, and argues that the death penalty is neither necessary nor useful except in rare cases of danger to the state, while it teaches cruelty by example. He closes by urging that preventing crime is better than punishing it.

It is the founding text of modern penal reform, and its arguments about deterrence, torture and the death penalty are still made in current debates.