Cesare Beccaria

Cesare Beccaria was an Italian jurist, philosopher and economist of the Milanese Enlightenment. His short treatise On Crimes and Punishments, published anonymously in 1764, argued that criminal law should rest on reason and public usefulness rather than tradition or vengeance. It condemned torture, secret accusations and the death penalty, and was quickly translated across Europe, influencing reformers, rulers and the American founders. Beccaria later lectured on political economy in Milan and held public office in Austrian Lombardy. He is often counted among the founders of modern criminology and penal reform.

Key ideas

• Laws should aim at the greatest happiness shared among the greatest number.
• Punishment is justified only to prevent future crime, and should be no harsher than that purpose requires.
• The certainty and promptness of punishment deter more effectively than its severity.
• Torture and the death penalty are both unjust and useless.
• Laws should be clear and public, and judges should apply them rather than reinterpret them.

Major works

• On Crimes and Punishments (1764)
• On the Disorder of Currency in the State of Milan (1762)

In the Book corner

• On Crimes and Punishments 1764 · Beginner
  A short treatise, published anonymously in Livorno in 1764 by a young Milanese nobleman, that became the most widely read case for…

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