The publication of Beccaria’s An Essay on Crimes and Punishments has been significant in the evolution of correctional policy.

The publication of Beccaria’s An Essay on Crimes and Punishments has been significant in the evolution of correctional policy.

The age of enlightenment facilitated a movement of social reform for the treatment of criminals in the 18th century. Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), a criminal law reformer and the founding father of the classical school of criminological theory led the social reform. Beccaria’s most influential work a treatise named ‘On Crimes and Punishment’, was based upon the doctrine of utilitarianism, in which the emphasis of all action should be pleasurable for the greatest number of people. Contemporary criminologists refer to this perspective as the Classical School (Jeffrey 1972; Vold 1979). Beccaria asserted that human behaviour could be represented as the product of rational individual calculation and therefore humans behave to maximise personal pleasure and minimize pain (Ross & Lafree 1986, pp 129). Firstly this essay describes briefly Beccaria’s essay â...