Cesare Beccaria

The world has made great strides in protecting human life in the last hundred years but a few dark spots remain, one of them being the death penalty. The death penalty dates back to the beginning of time, an eye for an eye and a life for a life, At one time the death penalty may have been needed and may have been a deterrent to crime but, in the modern world there is no place for such a barbaric and cruel ritual. The death penalty should be outlawed because it is ineffective, inhumane, and…

Within the context of criminology, examining the reasons as to why individuals commit crime is critical in understanding how acts of crime should be punished and deterred. When an event that is deemed criminal, deviant and/or delinquent occurs, society searches to understand and explain the event. Jeffrey Dahmer is a notorious serial killer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who kidnapped and killed 17 men and teenagers between 1978 and 1991 (Ferrari et al., 2002). Furthering his involvement in their…

While slavery in America was ended by the US Civil War, racial discrimination was legally retained in the Jim Crow Laws. These laws, which were prevalent in all southern states, separating black and white Americans in all social settings. The Jim Crow Laws were turned over in the 1960s heavily due to the Civil Rights Movement. However, despite the trends in law enforcement allow discrimination to continue in other forms. Mass incarceration refers to America’s experimentation in incarceration,…

These abolitionists had the huge effect on Capital punishment in America during the late 1700s. In 1767, Italian Criminologist Cesare Beccaria 's wrote his famous essay , On Crimes and Punishment, which had a profound effect on American abolitionist. Beccaria’s opinion that there was no justification in taking one 's life no matter the circumstance, lead to a surge of abolitionists.…

between 1650 and 1800 in Europe where people began to use logic rather than rely on the church or a king. People began to question religious beliefs and become more tolerant of new ideas. Philosophes such as Baron de Montesquieu, John Locke, Cesare Beccaria and many more introduce revolutionary new ideals that still affect our society today. Natural rights influenced the people and led them to revolution. Among the many Enlightenment ideals, natural rights did and still does hold the most…

RCT is part of the classical school which was developed by the Italian social thinker Cesare Beccaria. People who commit a crime are not afraid of law breaking because they enjoy what comes to them and want to take even bigger chances. “RCT is based on simple assumption that human beings are rational and self-interest motivated in their everyday…

They don’t discriminate, they terrify people, they kill you! This is a big controversial topic. This is the defense that liberals use when it comes to gun violence “Gun Control”. The lengthy debate, which I will explain in this essay, will demonstrate why gun control simply does not work. According to an article on the Cornell University Law School, The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the…

The use of capital punishment has been around for centuries, the first known time being the code of Hammurabi, a legal code of ancient Mesopotamia dating back to 1754 BC, the death penalty was inflicted on individuals accused of 25 certain crimes such as infidelity or helping slaves escape surprisingly murder was not one of them. The death sentence for these particular crimes was carried out by such means as crucifixion, drowning, burning alive, or impalement. In our nation’s past, The death…

In September 2015, Pope Francis urged the United States to abolish the death penalty during an address to Congress. Similar to the previous pope, Pope Francis advocated abolition because “every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes” (“Address of the Holy Father”). Although the Roman Catholic Church now opposes capital punishment, their strong stance for abolition is fairly…

centuries of brutal authoritarianism, to rise up in revolution. Ideas of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity gained popularity, prompting the complete overhaul of the legal system based on the concepts of Jeremy Bentham (Burns & Hart eds. 1996) and Cesare Beccaria (Thomas ed. 2009). Together they established the principles that would encapsulate Classical Criminology and shape the criminal system as it is known today. In this climate, the concept of a ‘social contract’ was surmised by Jean-Jacques…