Beccaria, Cesare Bonesana, Marchese di

Beccaria, Cesare Bonesana, Marchese di (1738-1794), Italian criminologist, economist, and jurist, born in Milan, whose opinions were formed by studying the writers of the 18th-century French Enlightenment, the Encyclopédistes, especially Baron de Montesquieu. His chief work, Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1764; trans. 1880), in which he argues against the severities and abuses of criminal law, especially capital punishment and torture, became extremely popular and was translated into all the European languages. The writings of Beccaria stimulated and provided a guide for reforms in the penal codes of many European nations, as well as the United States. Among the first to advocate education as a means of lessening crime, he was professor of public law and economy at the Palatine University of Milan from 1768 to 1770; he held various public offices after 1771.