On Crimes and Punishments

Summary

On Crimes and Punishments (Dei delitti e delle pene) is a short Italian treatise that became one of the most influential books in the history of criminal law. Cesare Beccaria published it anonymously at Livorno in 1764. A French translation of 1766, with a commentary by Voltaire, carried it across Europe, and it was soon read in Britain and America. The translation used here is James Anson Farrer's of 1880. Beccaria begins with the origin of law in a social contract: people surrender a small part of their liberty to enjoy the rest in safety, and the right to punish rests only on that surrendered portion. From this he draws a series of rules. Only laws, made by the legislator, may fix crimes and penalties, and judges should apply them rather than interpret them by their own feelings. Laws should be clear, written in the common language and known to all, because ignorance and uncertainty encourage crime. Punishments should be proportioned to the harm done to society, and they deter best when they are prompt and certain, not when they are cruel. On this basis Beccaria condemns many practices of his time. He attacks torture used to extract confessions, arguing that it punishes people not yet proved guilty and favours the strong over the innocent who are weak. He criticizes secret accusations, oaths forced on the accused and the confiscation of a criminal's property, which punishes his innocent family. Most famously, in Chapter XVI he argues against capital punishment, holding that no one would have given society the right to kill him and that long penal servitude deters more effectively than the brief spectacle of execution. He closes with the means of preventing crime: clear laws, enlightenment, honest magistrates, rewards for virtue and, above all, education. The book helped bring about the abolition of torture in many European states and the reform of criminal codes. Catherine the Great of Russia drew on it, and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany abolished the death penalty in 1786. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson read it, and its ideas echo in the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments. Readers may weigh its arguments against the biblical and classical traditions of just punishment.

Top Lessons

• Certainty over severity

  Beccaria argues that a mild punishment that is sure to come deters more than a cruel one that may be escaped. Justice should be steady, not savage.

• Innocent until proved guilty

  Beccaria insists that no one may be punished as guilty before a judge has decided the case. Torture violates this rule.

• Prevention is better

  The book ends by urging laws, education and virtue that keep crimes from happening. Good societies form good citizens.

• Weighing the argument

  Beccaria grounds punishment in a social contract and in usefulness. Christians and classical thinkers also speak of justice, desert and the authority God gives to rulers.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

Discusses judicial torture and the pain of punishment.

• Chapter XII

  The argument against using pain to extract confessions.