Cesare Beccaria Quotes

Criminals are punished, that others may be deterred.

It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them.

No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes.

The end of punishment, therefore, is no other than to prevent the criminal from doing further injury to society, and to prevent others from committing the like offence. Such punishments, therefore, and such a mode of inflicting them, ought to be chosen, as will make the strongest and most lasting impressions on the minds of others, with the least torment to the body of the criminal

Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal.

The purpose of punishment is fulfilled, crime is repressed by penalties of just, not tormenting, severity, its repetition is prevented, and hope is given for the reformation of the criminal.

Nothing will deter crime but the certainty of punishment.

The act of policing is, in order to punish less often, to punish more severely.

Punishment can do a lot for criminals, and send a message to the rest of society.

Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime.

I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…

Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

But passing by all other considerations, and contemplating merely the political institutions of the United States, I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them.

Arresting people is not going to lower the crime rate

Every first year law student learns that sentencing has four goals: retribution, incapicitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation.

There is one stark fact facing us: three quarters of all crime that results in a caution or sentence happens because of reoffending. We must be fearless in dealing with this.

A proper criminal justice system exacts justice - that is, punishes criminals for their crimes. Rehabilitation and deterrence are worthy goals, but they are secondary to retribution.

There's a simple way to solve the crime problem: obey the law; punish those who do not.

Of course it can be said of jails, too, that they try - by punishing the troublesome - to deter others. No doubt, in certain instances this deterrence actually works. But generally speaking it fails conspicuously.

'Getting smart on crime' does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes.

The message has to be sent that if you commit a crime there has to be punishment.

More prisons, more enforcement, effective death penalty.

We want a state of things in which crime will not pay.

The essence to reducing violent crime in our society is to take these people [criminals] off the street.

Retribution is no longer the dominant objective of the criminal law. Reformation and rehabilitation of offenders have become important goals of criminal jurisprudence.