Beccaria's Legacy
The U.S. criminal justice system is based on the notion that people are innocent until government proves them guilty. We call this the adversarial system of justice. This is the opposite of the inquisitorial system of justice from the 1700s during Cesare Beccaria's time when people were considered guilty until they were able to prove themselves innocent. In 1764, Beccaria wrote On Crimes and Punishment, approximately 100 pages in which he laid out what would become the bedrock of systems of justice around the world. Consider the arguments of Beccaria. First, government should establish set of laws that are written down (e.g. no ad hoc law making, or making allowing judges to make up laws as he/see sees fit) and that are clear enough to be understood by all. Second, the punishment should fit the crime. Beccaria was against torture and cruel and unusual punishment, arguing that such practices not only are inhumane, but that they do not work. Beccaria argued that a weak person would be more likely to admit guilt in spite of his/her innocence just to put an end to the torture. On the other hand, a person with a stronger resistance to pain could continue to claim innocence and be deemed so by the King’s officials who were meting out the punishment. Third, Beccaria believed that punishment should be swift and it should be certain or else threats of punishment would do very little to deter crime.
It is easy to see how Beccaria’s legacy greatly influences the modern-day U.S. criminal justice system in which: 1. laws are written down in the form of criminal codes that are clearly spelled out and that must pass the reasonable person test, meaning that laws that are not clear can be struck down by the courts. This is referred to as substantive law; 2. the legal system consists of laws to which are attached descriptions of what the punishment for breaking that law should be. Although there are rich debates over punishment, most people agree that the punishment does fit the crime. Note that in the U.S., property thieves are not put to death for their offenses; on the other hand, people who commit first degree murder are going to face, if found guilty, long prison terms or even capital punishment (in those 35 states that have the death penalty); 3. Most states have some version of the “one year and a day rule” which means that government must bring an offender to trial within a reasonable amount of time beyond the time period when the person was arrested. In short, today’s system of justice is grounded in the notion of deterrence, just as was Beccaria’s arguments from 1764. If rationally thinking people know what is legally prohibited behavior and that they will be punished if they are found guilty if engaging in those behaviors, and if the punishment is strict enough without being overly punitive, then, says the deterrence argument, they will me much less likely to break the law in the first place.