Cesare Beccaria
Cesare Beccaria was an Italian criminologist, jurist, philosopher, and a politician.
He was considered as the most talented jurist, and one of the greatest thinkers of the
age of enlightenment. Beccaria is well remembered for his treatise on crimes and
punishments which condemned torture and the death penalty, and was a founding work
in the field of penology and the Classical School of criminology. Beccaria is considered
the father of modern criminal law and the father of criminal justice.
John Bessler thought that Beccaria’s works had a profound influence on the
Founding Fathers of the United States. In 1764, Pietro Verri encourage Beccaria to
published a brief but justly celebrated treatise on crimes and punishments. Some
background information was provided by Pietro who was in the process of authoring a
