ABSTRACT
Written by the Italian lawyer and Enlightenment philosopher Cesare Beccaria and published anonymously in 1764, the short treatise Of Crimes and Punishments is traditionally heralded as the first text in the history of premodern criminology. Utilitarianism is the idea that punishment is justified by the end result, which must benefit the wider society. The doctrine of utilitarianism operated for Beccaria as a core justificatory argument for the state's right to punish, and it is positioned prominently at the beginning of his text. Beccaria's advocacy of probability extended to each stage of the criminal justice system, including the clarity of the law itself; judicial torture; witnesses and evidence; jurors; and sentencing practices. Beccaria urged that only a fixed, understandable, and predictable law could provide citizens with personal security, reduce the number of crimes based on ignorance and uncertainty, and liberate them from judicial arbitrariness.
