Post by SeventhSeal17 on May 8, 2007 21:32:04 GMT -5
Cesare Beccaria
D. R. Munro
Cesare’s legacy began in the year 1738 in the states of Milan, Italy. Born into the Italian aristocracy by blood he was afforded the fine opportunity to be educated at a renowned Italian Jesuit school. Cesare’s instructors noticed his uncanny aptitude in the area of mathematics, and prompted him to pursue this avenue. His love of academia pushed toward him forming a literary society, along with Alessandro and Pietro Verri, called the Academy of Fists. Many think the name sounds preposterous, and they should, as it was intended as a jab toward the Italian academic elite and their overblown academic societies.
The year that really marked Beccaria’s entry into the Enlightenment lexicon, and his main reason for notoriety still today, was 1764, the year in which he published his most celebrated work: “On Crimes and Punishments”. Now, this may seem like tame stuff today, but Beccaria was living in a time when fair trials were rare and torture was the main form of interrogation. In these now archaic days, the death penalty was the go to solution for many crimes, petty and serious alike. Beccaria did not agree with this even with an ounce of his mind and he, in fact, became the first real vocal proponent against the death penalty. The themes of Beccaria’s book are really cornerstones of our modern society here in the United States. He advocated for criminal justice, or rather, the right to be found guilty as opposed to being assumed guilty. He spoke out for laws that applied to everyone. Laws that everyone would be weighed against. Aristocracy and beggars alike. In a time when the state system was still widely in effect, he proclaimed that the state does not have the right to take a life. That is some radical stuff right there.
It is nearly remarkable how Beccaria’s words mirror our own criminal justice system. He decided that it “punishment” should aim not to punish, but rather to teach and act as a deterrent to future to criminals. He also said that criminal convictions should be done on a public forum for all to see, which leads right into his main argument. The punishment should not be as harsh as one can possible make it, but as consistent as one can possible make it. Remove all doubt from the would-be criminal. Make it so that they know d**n well if they choose to commit a certain a crime they will be punished, no matter what. The fear of punishment should deter crime. Now, in the real world we all know that is not true, but from a philosophical perspective it makes perfect sense in a perfect world.
One thing that struck this writer during the researching of the life of Cesare Beccaria was his stance on the utility of criminal punishment. His main point with this main theme of his works was that the criminal should be punished not out of retribution, but to increase the greater happiness of the society. He felt that a criminal should be, in effect, made incapacitated to being a criminal. To force whatever inner impulse that drives on to crime out of the prisoner. Then and only then will the society be better off with the least damage done to the criminal and society as a whole. Now, this sounds like a great idea to most, the criminal suffers the least possible amount while still being ‘fixed’ and society is happy that he was punished and not a threat no longer. Well, to make a contemporary connection to forward greater understanding of the topic, we can look at Stanley Kubrick's fine film, “A Clockwork Orange”.
The film is notorious among non-film buffs for its gratuitous violence and sexual content, but the deep meaning is apparent to all fellow film students. In the story the protagonist, Alex, is a brutal criminal completely devoid of conscience. Yet, he as the all too human love of classical music. Eventually he gets caught for one of his crimes and is given an experimental procedure called the Ludovico Treatment. During this treatment Alex undergoes no physical harm. He does, however, have his eyelids held open by a machine and forced to watch hours and hours of various forms of violence and sexual violence. The idea behind the treatment is that Alex will be so traumatized by the experience he will literally be unable to commit another crime. And it works. Every time he feels the urge to commit some heinous act he feels sick to his stomach. While in theory the procedure was a great success, a heartless criminal can no longer commit harmful crimes. But, Kubrick suggests that taking away ones ability for self choice between right and wrong, good and evil, makes us anything but human. To him, that choice is the very thing that makes us human, to violate that freedom, and freedom is a cornerstone of the Enlightenment, is just as awful as the former. Hope this helps for a deeper understanding about the relationship between Beccaria’s ideas and our own modern world.
Back to Beccaria proper. His writings were not meant for the masses, and thus the masses took little note of them. He did, however, have governments in his sights. Two of his more controversial jabs at state laws of the time were his views on suicide and judges. Suicide laws, to Beccaria, were completely useless and without merit. Suicides were not given proper Christian burials and he said that was wrong. In his eyes, God is the only judge of that, not man. His other popular controversy regards judges of his day. Laws were vague and very much able to interpret the law anyways they wished. Thus, is two people committed the same crime on the same day they may receive very different sentences. This was counterproductive to deterrence of crime because of how inconsistent it was a criminal never knew whether he would meet the noose or pay a fine. One of his more radical ideas was that treason is the worst crime a man commits, worse then murder even, for it puts the entire society in jeopardy. Somewhat mirroring our own laws against treason.
Due to the preaching of Beccaria’s words, the Italian state of Tuscany became the first nation in the entire word to abolish capital punishment. Many European nations would soon follow suit.
Many of Beccaria’s opinions on such things of The Church and the place of religion in the world didn’t make it to the public forum and, more then likely, remained in his heads and the heads of his closest friends. He did, however, revolutionize the world and basically started the entire field of criminology and criminal justice.
THIS IS MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. YOU MAY NOT USE IT IN PART OR WHOLE ANYWHERE.
D. R. Munro
Cesare’s legacy began in the year 1738 in the states of Milan, Italy. Born into the Italian aristocracy by blood he was afforded the fine opportunity to be educated at a renowned Italian Jesuit school. Cesare’s instructors noticed his uncanny aptitude in the area of mathematics, and prompted him to pursue this avenue. His love of academia pushed toward him forming a literary society, along with Alessandro and Pietro Verri, called the Academy of Fists. Many think the name sounds preposterous, and they should, as it was intended as a jab toward the Italian academic elite and their overblown academic societies.
The year that really marked Beccaria’s entry into the Enlightenment lexicon, and his main reason for notoriety still today, was 1764, the year in which he published his most celebrated work: “On Crimes and Punishments”. Now, this may seem like tame stuff today, but Beccaria was living in a time when fair trials were rare and torture was the main form of interrogation. In these now archaic days, the death penalty was the go to solution for many crimes, petty and serious alike. Beccaria did not agree with this even with an ounce of his mind and he, in fact, became the first real vocal proponent against the death penalty. The themes of Beccaria’s book are really cornerstones of our modern society here in the United States. He advocated for criminal justice, or rather, the right to be found guilty as opposed to being assumed guilty. He spoke out for laws that applied to everyone. Laws that everyone would be weighed against. Aristocracy and beggars alike. In a time when the state system was still widely in effect, he proclaimed that the state does not have the right to take a life. That is some radical stuff right there.
It is nearly remarkable how Beccaria’s words mirror our own criminal justice system. He decided that it “punishment” should aim not to punish, but rather to teach and act as a deterrent to future to criminals. He also said that criminal convictions should be done on a public forum for all to see, which leads right into his main argument. The punishment should not be as harsh as one can possible make it, but as consistent as one can possible make it. Remove all doubt from the would-be criminal. Make it so that they know d**n well if they choose to commit a certain a crime they will be punished, no matter what. The fear of punishment should deter crime. Now, in the real world we all know that is not true, but from a philosophical perspective it makes perfect sense in a perfect world.
One thing that struck this writer during the researching of the life of Cesare Beccaria was his stance on the utility of criminal punishment. His main point with this main theme of his works was that the criminal should be punished not out of retribution, but to increase the greater happiness of the society. He felt that a criminal should be, in effect, made incapacitated to being a criminal. To force whatever inner impulse that drives on to crime out of the prisoner. Then and only then will the society be better off with the least damage done to the criminal and society as a whole. Now, this sounds like a great idea to most, the criminal suffers the least possible amount while still being ‘fixed’ and society is happy that he was punished and not a threat no longer. Well, to make a contemporary connection to forward greater understanding of the topic, we can look at Stanley Kubrick's fine film, “A Clockwork Orange”.
The film is notorious among non-film buffs for its gratuitous violence and sexual content, but the deep meaning is apparent to all fellow film students. In the story the protagonist, Alex, is a brutal criminal completely devoid of conscience. Yet, he as the all too human love of classical music. Eventually he gets caught for one of his crimes and is given an experimental procedure called the Ludovico Treatment. During this treatment Alex undergoes no physical harm. He does, however, have his eyelids held open by a machine and forced to watch hours and hours of various forms of violence and sexual violence. The idea behind the treatment is that Alex will be so traumatized by the experience he will literally be unable to commit another crime. And it works. Every time he feels the urge to commit some heinous act he feels sick to his stomach. While in theory the procedure was a great success, a heartless criminal can no longer commit harmful crimes. But, Kubrick suggests that taking away ones ability for self choice between right and wrong, good and evil, makes us anything but human. To him, that choice is the very thing that makes us human, to violate that freedom, and freedom is a cornerstone of the Enlightenment, is just as awful as the former. Hope this helps for a deeper understanding about the relationship between Beccaria’s ideas and our own modern world.
Back to Beccaria proper. His writings were not meant for the masses, and thus the masses took little note of them. He did, however, have governments in his sights. Two of his more controversial jabs at state laws of the time were his views on suicide and judges. Suicide laws, to Beccaria, were completely useless and without merit. Suicides were not given proper Christian burials and he said that was wrong. In his eyes, God is the only judge of that, not man. His other popular controversy regards judges of his day. Laws were vague and very much able to interpret the law anyways they wished. Thus, is two people committed the same crime on the same day they may receive very different sentences. This was counterproductive to deterrence of crime because of how inconsistent it was a criminal never knew whether he would meet the noose or pay a fine. One of his more radical ideas was that treason is the worst crime a man commits, worse then murder even, for it puts the entire society in jeopardy. Somewhat mirroring our own laws against treason.
Due to the preaching of Beccaria’s words, the Italian state of Tuscany became the first nation in the entire word to abolish capital punishment. Many European nations would soon follow suit.
Many of Beccaria’s opinions on such things of The Church and the place of religion in the world didn’t make it to the public forum and, more then likely, remained in his heads and the heads of his closest friends. He did, however, revolutionize the world and basically started the entire field of criminology and criminal justice.
THIS IS MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. YOU MAY NOT USE IT IN PART OR WHOLE ANYWHERE.