On Studying Of Beccaria's Penalty Purposes

Cesare Beccaria was an Italian criminal law expert, the founder and the most important representative of the classical criminal school. His immortal book "On Crimes and Punishments" is the first specialized book on the issue of crime and punishment in human history. This book contains abundant thoughts of criminal law and caused a stir at that time, and also had great practical significance on modern criminal laws. There are a great deal of articles on studying Beccaria's criminal thoughts,however, most of them only stay on a simple level. In order to achieve deep understanding , this thesis focuses on one aspect of his rich criminal law thoughts.The thesis is composed of introduction and conclusion and five other parts:Part one: The ideological background of Beccaria's penalty purposes. This part analyses the ideological background of Beccaria's penalty intention. Beccaria lived in the early stage of capitalist society, his thought of penalties were deeply influenced by the thought of Enlightenment. His book was full of the spirit of humanism, such as "freedom","equality" and "caritas" .Part two: The theoretical basis of Beccaria's views on penalty purposes . This part studies the theoretical basis of Beccaria's views on penalty purposes , his theory is based both on the"social contract theory"of the classical natural law and the utilitarianism, he distinguished the real utilitarianism from the fictitious one. Part three: The main thoughts of Beccaria's penal laws. This part studies Beccaria's penal laws as a whole. At first, it discusses the root of penalty, in this regard, he insisted on the theory of relativism; however, there is also some absolutism in his dissertation. He insisted on the dual preventions of the penalty purposes. He believed that making the criminal suffering is not the purpose of punishment, what the punishment really want to achieve is to adjust the criminal to the society and not commit a crime again. At the same time, it gives warning to others. In order to achieve this purpose, Beccaria erected three principles: crime and punishment should be determined by laws; punishment should fit for the crime; and punishment should be humanistic.Part four: The interpretation of Beccaria's views on penalty purposes. The part is the most important part in this thesis. It is divided into three parts: firstly, the main content of Beccaria's views on penalty purposes , that is the dual preventions of the penalty purposes; secondly, it analyses Beccaria's views on penalty purposes longitudinally ; at last, it analyses Beccaria's thoughts horizontally, that is the contrast between the preventive and retributive theories of the penalty purposes .The conclusion is that Beccaria's views on penalty purposes fitted for the requirements of his society's development. It is a progressive thought.Part five: The enlightenment of Beccaria's views on penalty purposes. Through the interpretation of Beccaria's penalty thoughts, it can be concluded that if a theory is adapted to the requirements of social development, it would be accredited and developed. In face of the reality in our country that scholars hold different thoughts on the penalty purposes. The author believes that such kind of views on penalty purposes should be promoted, that is an integrative theory based on prevention and pay attention to different penal categories and different phases .