Cesare Beccaria influence on the United States criminal justice system is felt mainly on how offenders receive corrections and punishments for the crime committed. Beccaria was in an intellectual group referred to as The Academy of Fists. He wrote on Crime and punishment in 1764 with an intention to reform the justice system. What inspired him to give a contribution on justice system was the convictions of his friends in the coffee house group. Beccaria's essay on crime and punishment touch on various aspect. In light of that, this writes up focuses on how his work contributes to corrections, treatment of offenders and criminal justice in the modern world.
Utilitarianism
In this theory, Beccaria held a belief that the government legislation should offer the utmost public good. He argues that the criminal punishment should be useful and practical to the people. The penalties that offenders meet should increase the general happiness of people and make a society better (De Caro, 2016). The modern world of the justice system has taken these school of thought that an offender should not be punished for the sake of passing judgment. Instead, the punishment should make the society happy and the people affected by the crime should be made better.
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Deterrence
In the 18th century, the criminal punishment was founded on vengeance. Retribution is a theory which holds that castigation is a fee for a wrong or harm caused. That ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' In his understanding, Beccaria thought that this form of punishment is marred with vengeance and retaliation. As an alternative, he endorsed deterrence. Deterrence helps to prevent crime by giving a threat of punishment that overshadows the desire to participate in wrongdoing. He argues that punishment must be swift, sure and appropriately severe. Thus deterrence would provide the most useful for the society.
Classical theory and criminal justice
The primary focus is this theory is about choices and the individual and that a person makes decisions centered on cost and benefit. The assumption in the classical law holds that a citizen must act responsibly, be moral and weigh the consequences of conduct before acting (Bessler, 2018). In his opinion, Beccaria argues that punishments and laws should provide a restrictive notion to deter people from committing a crime. At the time, the justice system thought that increasing the severity of penalties or increasing laws would reduce crime. In this theory, it supposes that all criminal deeds are rational and each action result from a free will.
Social contract
The source of the government's political power comes from the people. It denotes that a government exists only to serve its people (West, 2017). Due to the social contract, many nations’ constitutions acknowledge that the people have the sovereign power. Therefore, government power can be restricted by the citizens if they so choose. Beccaria argued that criminal punishment would only receive justification by fostering social contract. As a result, he categorized treason to be the greatest lawbreaking. This act was followed by violence against an individual and his property. And until today, treason is considered to be the most severe crime.
Death sentence
Various ways in which death sentence was instituted include hanging, poisoning, electrocution and firing squad (Reinert, 2015). This action brought an end to life within a specified period after the offender was sentenced. Beccaria was against the death penalty where he condemned the act openly. He claimed that capital punishment was not necessary or even useful at all. He further argued that a nation has no power over life thus a state should not have the audacity to take breaths. Today, the death sentence has been reduced to life imprisonment in many nations around the world.
Beccaria's contributions cannot go unnoticed. The way judgments are done today consider the utilitarianism, classical and social contract theories. In that respect, the punishment is set in a way that brings a corrective measure rather than just the punitive nature of the crime committed. As a result, people's happiness has been on the increase with a creation of a better society following the punishments that the justice system has endorsed for various crimes.
References
Bessler, J. D. (2018). The Abolitionist Movement Comes of Age: From Capital Punishment as a Lawful Sanction to a Peremptory, International Law Norm Barring Executions.
De Caro, M. (2016). Utilitarianism and Retributivism in Cesare Beccaria. Italian LJ , 2 , 1.
Reinert, A. A. (2015). Reconceptualizing the Eighth Amendment: Slaves, Prisoners, and Cruel and Unusual Punishment. NCL Rev. , 94 , 817.
West, R. (2017). Classical Criminology. The Wiley ‐ Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory , 1-4.
