Reviewing the Necessity of Punishment Essay

The way that we deal with criminals today is center and established based on how Cesare Beccaria defined and stated it. Who is Cesare Beccaria? Cesare Beccaria is an Italian scholar born in Milan, Lombardy, Italy on Saturday March 14, 1738. He died at the age of 56 in the same city on Friday, November 28, 1794. Cesare Beccaria was an Italian criminologist, a jurist, a philosopher, and a politician who is widely considered as the most talented jurist [3] and one of the greatest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment. Recognized to be one of the fathers of classical criminal theory and modern penology, he is well remembered for his writings on “On Crimes and Punishments” written in 1764, which condemned torture and the death penalty, and was a founding work in the field of penology and the Classical school of criminology by promoting criminal justice. (citation)

Mandatory sentencing is not anything new. It began in the 1970s. The main purpose for mandatory sentencing was to try to get rid of the drug lords and to eliminate most of the nation’s street drug selling. It was to impose that the same crime would have the same sentence all over the nation. Some of the negatives that rose from mandatory sentencing were nonviolent drug offenders and first time offenders who were receiving harsh sentences. Inmate populations and correction costs increased and pushed states to build more prisons. Judges were overloaded with these cases, and lengthy prison terms were mandated to these young offenders. Mandatory sentencing is an interesting topic in which I would like to discuss my opinions in going against

The main summary of Cesare Beccaria’s ‘of crimes and punishment’ was best said in a statement by Beccaria himself which was ‘In order that any punishment should not be an act of violence committed by one person or many against a private citizen, it is essential that it should be public, prompt, necessary, the minimum possible under the given circumstances, proportionate to the crimes, and established by law. ' (Beccaria, C. 2003 pg. 24) Beccaria’s theory was that punishment should only be used to prevent an offender from reoffending and non-offenders from ever offending. This was done by looking at the severity of the punishment, that the punishment should match the crime and should not exceed severity than what is needed to achieve the deterrence of crime. Beccaria is extremely against the idea of torture being used and debates that it should never be used against someone who is still in the stage of being innocent until proven guilty; he is also opposed to the use of capital punishment unless used in extreme restricted situations.

Cesare Beccaria's framework is the foundation of the criminal justice system we currently have. Although his beliefs were to promote fairness for offenders and claimed that the use of torture was one of the worst aspects of the criminal

Thus the author’s account of his experience may be viewed as subjective and open to objection. In the letter, we see that the author does attempt to offer statistical evidence of an L.A.P.D study conducted in 1975 besides his own personal account. Yet still statistically speaking, the numbers of subjects are unrepresentative as the sample population is too small. Nonetheless, author’s view that the justification of the implementation of death penalty is undisputable does have some grounding in theory. Once a person has initiated force against another person, he has in fact deprived himself of individual rights and declared himself as irrational being. Thus it is an act of justice on the State’s part to totally eradicate that irrational being. This is the backward-looking position epitomized in Aquinas and Kant [Pojman]. Yet, if the punishment is imposed on the wrong persons, as exemplified by Carlos Deluna’s case of 1989, and then the death penalty is not justified. In this case, the prosecutors reportedly withheld crucial exculpatory evidence that led to Deluna’s conviction and eventual death. The prosecutor used a tactic that was widespread and went

Kris Young is 25 years old, and got into some trouble at age 13and received probation for a case involving battery. While Kris was on probation he was arrested for criminal trespass and he had received additional probation time. Some of my results from the file review did not match Roberts. Two views in which Robert and I had the same were giving Kris and extension for probation period beyond the original two years. Because Kris fail to pay his fine amount within the stipulated period and was giving the extension so that he will have time to pay off his fine. Another view in which was the same was Kris having a successful completion of his probation was the same, because he got

Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) is probably most well known as the founding father of the school of classical criminology. He protested against the current legal system and pushed for those in power to see that individuals are rational beings and deserve rational repercussions. In his most popular work; Essay on Crimes and Punishments, he protested against the cruel punishments and suggested that they must only be equal to that of the crime itself and revolutionised the criminal justice system with his ideals on how to make the most effective punishment, without maximum damage of the individual. He believed that “Punishment is only justified to the extent that the offender has infringed the rights of others or injured the public good.” (Newburn, 2013) Although Beccaria viewed crime as an act of free-will and rational choice he did see that some individuals were pre-rational (meaning they were unable to be rational), for example children and also that there are sub-rational people (individuals with some rationality but not a full rational mind), this for example can be people with mental afflictions or diseases. Moreover he did not see that there can be a cause for crime which is due to situational problems, i.e. a big change in a person’s life which can cause them to commit crime, like death, financial problems, and birth of a child, family altercations and much more. Although Beccaria was not always right with his beliefs he was the

For the philosophy of punishment I chose deterrence, specifically because of the goals and benefit this philosophy. The deterrence punishment is divided in to two separate categories. First on is the general deterrence, the goal of general deterrence is to prevent non-offenders (those who’ve not committed a crime) from committing crimes by exposing non-offenders to the reality of the punishment that they would possibly be given if indeed they committed a crime. For example showing juveniles the process from being arrested, booked, charged, sentenced, and then incarcerated. The goal by doing this would be to teach the

From a very young age people experience punishment; from school teachers sending students to the corner for a moment of “time-out”, to mothers spanking their children or taking away some of their privileges do to deviant behavior. The purpose of punishment according to its history has always been to rehabilitate the offender into a person who understands that engaging in deviancy or crime, is a wrongful act (Samaha, 439). Comparable with many of the other criminal justice institutions; or decision points, the mission of prisons has experience change throughout the years; however, according to Joel Samaha author of the book Criminal Justice Seventh Edition, general deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution have remained dominantly as the primary

Roger Hood (2008) cites the opinion of Cesare Beccaria in the book On Crime and Punishment published in 1764 that says: “Capital punishment was both inhumane and ineffective: an unacceptable weapon for a modern enlightened state to employ, and less effective than the cer­tainty of imprisonment. Capital punishment was counterproductive if the purpose of law was to impart a moral conception of the duties of citizens to each other”. Beccaria's critics towards the capital punishment concept is a convincing data for the researcher, because as the critics he stated as above, it may influence the researcher conclusion of determining whether the death penalty should be abolished or still be carried out.

Famous philosopher and author of On Crimes and Punishments, once said, “The murder that is depicted as a horrible crime is repeated in cold blood, remorselessly” (Beccaria). Beccaria is one of the most well-known philosophers on the subject of Capital Punishment. Capital punishment is the state sponsored killing of criminals in order to protect society and inflict justice. However, it is a topic of speculation among society on a moral basis. What makes killing ok if the government does it? What is the difference between a murderer and an executioner? Society seeks to answer these questions and others in order to decide if Capital Punishment is moral.

Another key reason that “there actions were foolish and immature so they should of been punished

Throughout history, researchers around the world wondered about the topic of serial murderers, primarily because they couldn’t understand why an individual would be willing to take not only one life, but multiple. Many sociologists and criminologists devoted their professional lives to find answers to this question: what makes an individual a murderer? Here this paper would discuss about Jeffery Dahmer’s case. Jaeffery Dahmer was a serial killer who also ate the victim’s body, he was arrested and he was sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms, later on he was attacked and killed in a Wisconsin prison. as results of the hard work we came to an idea that all criminals fit under the category of classical school of criminology. The Classical School of Criminology was developed by Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Baccaria. Bentham was an English philosopher who focused on utilitarianism, he lived through 1748 to 1832. As a believer of utilitarianism, he stated “that people have a right to happiness and as a result should lead happy lives.” (Beccaria, 2016) This philosophy set the rules to help deter punishment and create punishment that is appropriate to the crime committed. This is the beginning of the Classical School of Thought. Beccaria was an Italian philosopher and attorney of law who lived between 1798 and 1894. Bentham and Baccaria were focused on crime and punishment throughout 18th century in Europe. During this era Europeans utilized capital punishment in

Cesare Beccaria is one of the main contributors to the Classical School. Beccaria’s philosophy of punishment included ideas that the purpose of punishment should be to deter crime rather than for revenge (Schmallenger, 2015, p. 58). The prevention of crime was more important to Beccaria than revenge (Schmallenger, 2015, p. 58). He also came up with the idea that punishments should be set in place to prevent offenders from reoffending (Schmallenger, 2015, p. 58). While opposing the use of torture, but accepting the death penalty in reference to serious crimes, he believed that the punishment should fit the crime (Schmallenger, 2015, p. 58).

I agree with the law that people who commit crimes need to be punished for their wrong doings. However, I do not agree with the way that the law thinks that problem should be handled through the death penalty. The bad part about the death penalty is that innocent people are executed, there is racism in the death penalty, the mentally retarded are executed, and the death penalty is costly.