CESARE BECCARIA: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
THE CORE READING
Cesare Beccaria,
SOME QUESTIONS
Who was Cesare Beccaria and how would you begin to place him in historical context?
How would you describe and analyze his overall philosophy of crime and punishment? What holds his arguments together? What are some of his underlying principles and assumptions? What roles, for example, do pleasure and pain, and reason play in his theories? To what extent do his ideas about punishment emerge logically from his own conceptions of human nature and the relationship between the individual and society? What, for Beccaria, is the purpose of punishment?
What most troubles him about European punishments of his own day? What aspects of his theory might most have alarmed some of his contemporaries?
Why does Beccaria have more confidence in the letter than in the spirit of the laws?
Why does he emphasize proportionality in punishment? Why does he think that a draconian set of punishments can actually serve as an incentive of sorts to commit serious crime? What role does deterrence play in his system?
What, for Beccaria, are some of the implications of the principle that the punishment should fit the crime?
Why does Beccaria reject torture as a punishment and how does his critique here compare and contrast with his opposition to capital punishment?
Why does he reject status distinctions within the procedures of criminal justice?
Beccaria: "Crimes are more effectually prevented by the certainty, than the severity of punishment." Comment.
What might Beccaria write about contemporary criminal justice if he were to be time-transported to today's Canada?
Do you find it surprising that Beccaria's essay had such an impact in its time? What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of Beccaria's ideas?
SOME EXTRA SOURCES
Cesare Beccaria
(1738-1794) -- Internet Encyclopedia Of Philosophy:
Cesare Beccaria -- Wikipedia: An entry from the on-line encyclopedia.