Criminal Justice

On 12th of April 1764, the citizens of Milan witnessed the brutal killing of Bartolomeo Luisetti. Bartolomeo had been condemned to death after being accused of sodomy. He was killed by asphyxiation and then burnt at the stake in front of the crowd. Throughout Europe, ruling elites believed that criminal justice had to be done and to be seen to be done; and criminal punishment had to be cruel so as to instil the fear of God in the people watching the gruesome spectacle. Beccaria observed the scene with horror. It was hard to believe that such cruelty could be regarded as a rational response to crime. At the time of the event, Beccaria was only in his mid-twenties, but already had strong political and philosophical views. In the same year, Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments was published.

His manifesto against cruel punishment and abuse of power spread through Europe like a wildfire and inspired radical reforms of repressive and coercive institutions throughout the continent. But what made Beccaria’s tract so popular with enlightenment rulers and thinkers? My hypothesis is that Beccaria managed to offer a vision of radical reforms that would follow a rational, and moderate, path. It pleased Les Philosophes and the administrators in equal measure. His novelty resided in the criticism of criminal law from the viewpoint of those who were immediately affected, rather than from the viewpoint of the lawyers. It was a Copernican revolution in perspective and one that stood with the many against the few privileged ones.

There are two key insights in Beccaria’s political theory of criminal justice. Firstly, the law should not be an instrument of oppression but rather a tool to foster life in common. Secondly, to constrain the abuse of political power every political system needs constitutional guarantees that minimize the interference of criminal law in people’s lives and promote social welfare policies so as to prevent crime.