Crim 1100 Assignment Option One
1 | P a g e
Assignment Option 1:
In this assignment option you must assess whether or not the information on the three offences
elow is consistent with the Classical School of Criminology. You must demonstrate your
knowledge of the School and explain your reasoning. The information on the offences is taken
from the Criminal Code of Canada (http:
laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/FullText.html),
the information on clearance rates is taken directly from Statistics Canada
(http:
www.statcan.gc.ca/pu
85-002-x/2012001/article/11647-eng.pdf) and the information on
case lengths is taken directly from Statistics Canada (http:
www.statcan.gc.ca/pu
85-002-
x/2015001/article/14226-eng.pdf).
Manslaughter
234 Culpable homicide that is not murder or infanticide is manslaughter.
236 Every person who commits manslaughter is guilty of an indictable offence and liable
(b) to imprisonment for life.
Ro
ery
343 Every one commits ro
ery who:
(a) steals, and for the purpose of extorting whatever is stolen or to prevent or overcome
esistance to the stealing, uses violence or threats of violence to a person or property;
(b) steals from any person and, at the time he steals or immediately before or immediately
thereafter, wounds, beats, strikes or uses any personal violence to that person;
(c) assaults any person with intent to steal from him; or
(d) steals from any person while armed with an offensive weapon or imitation thereof.
XXXXXXXXXXEvery person who commits ro
ery is guilty of an indictable offence and liable
(b) to imprisonment for life.
Breaking and entering with intent, committing offence or
eaking out
XXXXXXXXXXEvery one who
(a)
eaks and enters a place with intent to commit an indictable offence therein,
(b)
eaks and enters a place and commits an indictable offence therein, or
http:
laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/FullText.html
http:
www.statcan.gc.ca/pu
85-002-x/2012001/article/11647-eng.pdf
http:
www.statcan.gc.ca/pu
85-002-x/2015001/article/14226-eng.pdf
http:
www.statcan.gc.ca/pu
85-002-x/2015001/article/14226-eng.pdf
Crim 1100 Assignment Option One
2 | P a g e
(c)
eaks out of a place after
(i) committing an indictable offence therein, or
(ii) entering the place with intent to commit an indictable offence therein,
is guilty
(d) if the offence is committed in relation to a dwelling-house, of an indictable
offence and liable to imprisonment for life.
*** Please note that imprisonment “for life” is a maximum (not a minimum) sentence. As
we discussed in class there is no minimum sentence.
Clearance rates (Cleared by Charge in 2010):
Homicide (includes manslaughter) = 69/100
Ro
ery = 35.4/100
Break and Enter = 10.5/100
Average (Median) Length of Cases in Days (2014)
Homicide (includes manslaughter) = 451
Ro
ery = 223
Break and Enter = 176
Pioneers in Criminology IX--Cesare Beccaria XXXXXXXXXX)
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
Volume 46 | Issue 4 Article 2
1956
Pioneers in Criminology IX--Cesare Beccaria
XXXXXXXXXX)
Elio Monachesi
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XXXXXXXXXX)
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PIONEERS IN CRIMINOLOGY
IX. Cesare Beccaria XXXXXXXXXX)
ELIO MONACHESI
The author is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Sociology in the Uni-
versity of Minnesota. His academic career began with an instructorship in that institu-
tion. His connection there has been continuous since, except as inte
upted by two
year's research in Boston and in Italy under the auspices of the Social Science Research
Council. He has co-authored books entitled as follows: "The Rehabilitation of Chil-
dren", 1939 (with E. M. H. Baylor), "Elements of Sociology", 1951 (with Don Martin-
dale), "Analyzing and Predicting Juvenile Delinquency with the M.M.P.I.," 1953,
(with Starke R. Hathaway). The picture below is from Seidlitz' Allgemeines Histo-
isches Portrdt Werk. (Munich, 1889)-EDITOR.
CESARE BECCARIA
One seeks in vain for any clues in Cesare Beccaria's childhood and adolescence
which would be even slightly suggestive of the renowned essay on penal reform
that he was to write--an essay which showered upon him the acclaim and plaudits
of some of the best minds in the world in which he lived. As a matter of fact, Beccaria
in his early years did little more than to demonstrate that he was just ordinary
intellectually and not too much interested in nor concerned with scholarly pursuits.
It is true that he showed some flair for mathematics, but in general, his scholastic
activities could hardly be considered predictive of the authorship of Dei delitti e
delle pene.
ELIO MONACHESI
EARLIER YEARS
Milan was the birth place of Cesare Bonesana, Marquis of Beccaria, and the dtea
of his birth was March 15, 1738. He died on November 28, 1794. Both his father and
mother were members of the aristocracy and amongst his ancestors were persons
who had achieved distinction in various fields of endeavor. Beccaria received his
early schooling at the Jesuit College in Parma and later studied law at the Uni-
versity of Pavia. He was graduated from the University of Pavia in 1758. The years
he spent under the tutelage of the Jesuits at Parma, were by his own admission and
evaluation, unprofitable. He rebelled against the authoritarian methods of instruc-
tion, and the inflexible and dogmatic demeanor of his teachers tended to make the
subject matter taught unstimulating and uhinspiring. For a period he found mathe-
matics attractive, this subject too, however, soon failed to intrigue him further. The
years he spent exposed to what was then considered the essentials of an education
of an aristocrat failed to produce in Beccaria a modicum of enthusiasm for scholar-
ship. All that these years seemed to create in the frustrated young man was lethargy
and discontent. These drab and stifling educational experiences may have played,
however, an important part in the creation of Beccaria's essay on penal reform.
Perhaps we are merely speculating when we suggest that the nature of Beccaria's
formal education directly contributed to the formulation of the arguments against
the status quo so forcibly recorded in his essay. It does seem, however, that in his
tightly knit and succinct indictment of the prevailing penal practices, one can dis-
cern protestations against unrewarding and detestable early educational experi-
ences.
With his formal education completed Beccaria returned to Milan and shortly
after developed an interest in philosophical works. This interest was apparently
kindled by Montesquieu's Lettres persanes. In this satire on the religious and political
institutions of Montesquieu's world Beccaria found that something which he had
so sorely missed before. The interest thus aroused led him to read and to digest the
philosophical writings of others and especially those of the French Encyclopedists.
In addition to philosophy he also began to read extensively of literature. Beccaria's
interest in penology and crime was, however, aroused by his friendly association
with two stimulating and intellectually keen
others, Pietro and Alessandro Ve
i.
These two men, Pietro, a distinguished Italian economist, and Alessandro, a creative
writer of note attracted to them a group of young men dedicated to the study and
discussion of literary and philosophical subjects. It is to membership in this group
of
illiant young men, that met for study in the Ve
i home, that Beccaria owes
the incentive and the encouragement which eventually resulted in the essay on
penal reform. The environment provided by the intellectually stimulating discussions
which followed the serious study of the many social problems of the day aroused in
Beccaria an intense and fervent desire to question many aspects of eighteenth cen-
tury society. He found in Pietro Ve
i and in other members of the group the spark
needed to set in motion his creative powers.
Beccaria's first published work appeared in 1762 and was entitled: Del disordine e
de' rimedi delle monete nello stato di Milano nell' anno 1762. This monograph, of
practically no cu
ent significance, dealt with the plight and needed remedies fo
LWol. 46
PIONEERS IN CRIMINOLOGY-BECCARIA
the monetary system of the State of Milan. It is however, in many respects quite
original and provocative and does demonstrate that Beccaria possessed the ability
to write clearly, and forcibly.
His Fmous EssAY
Although Beccaria seemed to have at last found the intellectual interests, which
he had never acquired during his formative years, amongst his imaginative and
scholarly friends, he was by no means consumed by an eagerness to write. As his
friend and mentor, Pietro Ve
i recounted, Beccaria tended to be lazy and easily
discouraged. He needed prodding and even had to be given assignments upon which
to work. It was such assignment, given to him by Ve
i, that eventually culminated
in the essay Dei delitti e delle pene. Beccaria, so the story goes, knew nothing of
penology when he undertook to deal with the subject. Fortunately, however, Ales-
sandro Ve
i, who held the office of Protector of Prisoners, was able to give Beccaria
the help and the suggestions he needed. Work was begun on the essay in March,
1763 and the manuscript was completed in January 1764. It was first published
anonymously in July 1764 when Beccaria was barely a little more than twenty-six
years of age. The essay was an immediate success, acclaimed almost by all who read
it. However, not all who read it agreed with Beccaria. The fact that the essay was
at first published anomymously suggests that its contents were designed to under-
mine many if not all of the cherished beliefs of those in position to determine the
fate of those accused and convicted of crime. The essay was a tightly reasoned
devastating attack upon the prevailing systems for the administration of criminal
justice. As such it aroused the hostility and resistence of those who stood to gain by
the perpetuation of the ba
aric and archaic penological institutions of the day.
In order to appreciate the reason Beccaria's
ief essay Dei delitli e delle pene,
created such excitement, enthusiasm and controversy one needs to recall the state
of the criminal law in continental Europe at the time the essay first appeared.
The existent criminal law of eighteenth century Europe was, in general, repressive,
uncertain and ba
aric. Its administration permitted and encouraged incredibly
a
itrary and abusive