An Essay on Crimes and Punishments

Cesare Beccaria, Adolph Caso

• Publisher: Bonhopai Books
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781779794192
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Italian History

An Essay on Crimes and Punishments by Cesare Beccaria is one of the foundational works of modern law and justice — a concise, revolutionary manifesto that transformed criminal philosophy across the world. First published in 1764, when its author was barely twenty-six, this small book ignited the Enlightenment's campaign against cruelty, superstition, and arbitrary power. Beccaria's arguments for fairness, proportion, and humanity in punishment remain as relevant today as they were over two centuries ago.

Written in clear, rational prose, Beccaria's Essay denounces torture and capital punishment, condemns laws built on vengeance rather than reason, and insists that justice must serve the social good rather than the desires of rulers. His vision is of a legal system founded on deterrence, not brutality — where penalties are certain but measured, and where every human being is treated with dignity under the law. The book's moral clarity and logical rigor made it an instant sensation, influencing thinkers such as Voltaire, Jefferson, and Bentham, and shaping criminal codes throughout Europe and the Americas.

But beyond jurisprudence, An Essay on Crimes and Punishments is a plea for moral progress. Beccaria saw justice as a mirror of civilization: to make punishment humane was to make society itself humane. His call for reason over cruelty, and principle over passion, helped lay the intellectual foundations of democracy, civil rights, and the rule of law.

 For students of history, philosophy, or ethics, this landmark text remains essential reading — a masterpiece of Enlightenment thought that continues to illuminate the path from fear to fairness. 

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• PREFACE OF THE TRANSLATOR.
• INTRODUCTION.
• CHAPTER I.—OF THE ORIGIN OF PUNISHMENTS.
• CHAPTER II.—OF THE RIGHT TO PUNISH.
• CHAPTER III.—CONSEQUENCES OF THE FOREGOING PRINCIPLES.
• CHAPTER IV.—OF THE INTERPRETATION OF LAWS.
• CHAPTER V.—OF THE OBSCURITY OF LAWS.
• CHAPTER VI.—OF THE PROPORTION BETWEEN CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.
• CHAPTER VII.—OF ESTIMATING THE DEGREE OF CRIMES.
• CHAPTER VIII.—OF THE DIVISION OF CRIMES.
• CHAPTER IX.—OF HONOUR.
• CHAPTER X.—OF DUELLING.
• CHAPTER XI.—OF CRIMES WHICH DISTURB THE PUBLIC TRANQUILLITY.
• CHAPTER XII.—OF THE INTENT OF PUNISHMENTS.
• CHAPTER XIII.—OF THE CREDIBILITY OF WITNESSES.
• CHAPTER XIV.—OF EVIDENCE AND THE PROOFS OF A CRIME, AND OF THE FORM OF JUDGMENT.
• CHAPTER XV.—OF SECRET ACCUSATIONS.
• CHAPTER XVI.—OF TORTURE.
• CHAPTER XVII.—OF PECUNIARY PUNISHMENTS.
• CHAPTER XVIII.—OF OATHS.
• CHAPTER XIX.—OF THE ADVANTAGE OF IMMEDIATE PUNISHMENT.
• CHAPTER XX.—OF ACTS OF VIOLENCE.
• CHAPTER XXI.—OF THE PUNISHMENT OF THE NOBLES.
• CHAPTER XXII.—OF ROBBERY.
• CHAPTER XXIII.—OF INFAMY, CONSIDERED AS A PUNISHMENT.
• CHAPTER XXIV.—OF IDLENESS.
• CHAPTER XXV.—OF BANISHMENT, AND CONFISCATION.
• CHAPTER XXVI.—OF THE SPIRIT OF FAMILY IN STATES.
• CHAPTER XXVII.—OF THE MILDNESS OF PUNISHMENTS.
• CHAPTER XXVIII.—OF THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.
• CHAPTER XXIX.—OF IMPRISONMENT.
• CHAPTER XXX.—OF PROSECUTION AND PRESCRIPTION.
• CHAPTER XXXI.—OF CRIMES OF DIFFICULT PROOF.
• CHAPTER XXXII.—OF SUICIDE.
• CHAPTER XXXIII.—OF SMUGGLING.
• CHAPTER XXXIV.—OF BANKRUPTS.
• CHAPTER XXXV.—OF SANCTUARIES.
• CHAPTER XXXVI.—OF REWARDS FOR APPREHENDING, OR KILLING CRIMINALS.
• CHAPTER XXXVII.—OF ATTEMPTS, ACCOMPLICES AND PARDON.
• CHAPTER XXXVIII.—OF SUGGESTIVE INTERROGATIONS.
• CHAPTER XXXIX.—OF A PARTICULAR KIND OF CRIMES.
• CHAPTER XL.—OF FALSE IDEAS OF UTILITY.
• CHAPTER XLI.—OF THE MEANS OF PREVENTING CRIMES.
• CHAPTER XLII.—OF THE SCIENCES.
• CHAPTER XLIII.—OF MAGISTRATES.
• CHAPTER XLIV.—OF REWARDS.
• CHAPTER XLV.—OF EDUCATION.
• CHAPTER XLVI.—OF PARDONS.
• CHAPTER XLVII.—CONCLUSION.
• A COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS BY M. DE VOLTAIRE