The Death Penalty And Criticisms Of Beccaria — страница 3

argument was that a sentence of slavery was a greater deterrent, because of the pain that was inflicted. It is hard to see how this was a more deterrent because their was sufficient pain inflicted with both slavery and the death penalty. “We can see that his arguments here deeply contradict his previous claims to advocate mild punishments. In fact, he had argued in other parts of the Treatise that harsh punishments worked against deterrence. His only response to this criticism could be that penal slavery was less harsh than death as then inflicted, yet his argument was the opposite.” (Newman and Marongiu, 1990) According to Beccaria (1764/1963) “It is not the intensity of punishment that has the greatest effect on the human spirit, but its duration, for our sensibility is

more easily and more permanently affected by slight but repeated impressions than by a powerful but momentary action.” With is statement it is easily to see how Beccaria contidicts himself, but still make a very powerful argument. Cesare Beccaria was known as the father of the modern criminology, But his views and his book On Crimes and Punishments was widely criticized by other who studied in the same field. “A critical appraisal of the substance of On Crimes and Punishments is difficult to make, because it is a document full of many of obscurities and contradictions(which become worse when translated into English). The vagueness of many of the terms used and the level of generality of the document makes it difficult to pin down the substance. Some say that its this level of

generality that constitutes its genius.” (Newman and Marongiu, 1990) Even though Beccaria was widely criticized his views have been shared for many generations and will continue to shape and mold future generations. Bibliography References Adler, F., Mueller, G. O. W., & Laufer. W. S. (2001). Criminology. (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Beccaria, C. (1963). On crimes and punishment (H. Paolucci, Trans.). New York: Macmillan. (Original work published 1764). Johnson, H., & Wolfe, N. (1996). The Enlightenment and criminal justice. History of criminal justice. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing Company. Newman, G., & Marongiu, P. (1990). Penological reform and the myth of Beccaria. Criminology, 28, 325-346.