Beccaria-Bonesana - a Philosopher and Politician

Beccaria Report

Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria-Bonesana (1738 –1794) was a philosopher and politician and is greatly famous treatise "On Crime and Punishments", as a graduate of law he was a great follower of crime and justice and therefore had fixed principles, and the principle to which Beccaria appealed in was reason.

Beccaria believed that the origin of punishment came from laws. He argued that the independent man will unite himself in society. He believed there had to be a sense of limitation made from these laws formed therefore creating peace and order in the society to a certain extent, and in order to keep the society calm and in order for that to happen, there must be freedom sacrificed.

"Weary of living in a continual state of war, and of enjoying a liberty which became of little value, from the uncertainty of its duration, they sacrificed one part of it, to enjoy the rest in peace and security." [Of Crimes and Punishment 2001].

He argued that everybody in the society had to give up personal freedom for security in return; therefore the greatest good for the greatest number of people (he was inspired by Jeremy Bentham's theory of Utilitarianism) was made very clear in his treatise.

He believed that every crime should fit the glove,

"He discusses administration of criminal justice, in which he believes the rights of offenders are protected and torture is prohibited. If the victim and accused are in different classes the jury should be equally from both" [Comparative study of Classicism and Positivism 2008].

However, this brings attention to the public, how far does the public have a say in what is acceptable? He argues the harsher the punishment the more likely the criminal is not going to repeat its actions, this can be compared to the modern world in a way which criminals prefer a jail sentence then living in a society where they have more freedom to do evil, not know who to interact with and jails provide these criminals with help, security and warmth, food, the perfect basic hierarchy of survival they need, for example the imprisonment is still very high in NSW due to punishments not being harsh