On Crimes And Punishment By Beccaria Summary

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Beccaria expresses not only the need for the criminal justice system, but also the government’s right to have laws and punishments. He believes in the social contract, or the idea that freewill and rational individuals made a choice to live in a society instead of living alone. Laws are designed as the framework of the society and the rules for which acts are encouraged or prohibited. Laws are the conditions of a society of free willed and rational individuals. In "On Crimes and Punishments" Beccaria states, “but merely to have established this deposit was not enough; it had to be defended against private usurpation by individuals each of whom always tries not only to withdraw his own share but also to usurp for himself that of others” (Beccaria, 1963, pg. 12). He also stated that there is a need for and a right to have laws and a criminal justice system to ensure that all individuals in society obey or follow the social contract (Beccaria, 1963, pg. 12). …show more content…

He felt that the government at that time were just a "few remnants of the laws of an ancient predatory people, compiled for a monarch who ruled twelve centuries ago in Constantinople, mixed subsequently with Longobardic tribal customs, and bound together in chaotic volumes of obscure and unauthorized interpreters"(Beccaria, 1963, pg. 3). The criminal justice system was not any more enlightened than the government. He felt that the criminal laws and especially the "barbarous" punishments of the time needed reform. His essay, "On Crimes and Punishments" aimed at creating a blueprint for which the new enlightened criminal justice system would be based (Monachesi,

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