CRM 1300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cesare Beccaria, Actus Reus, Liberal Democracy

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRM 1300
• Professor: Michael Kempa

Document Summary

Criminal justice and the canadian charter of rights and freedoms , in roberts and. Codified rules for the exercise of sovereign authority. Utilitarian principles of preventing harm/producing the greatest good. Justice and fairness - "equal" punishment/correction on the basis of guilt and responsibility. Guilt and responsibility require both a wrongful (criminal) act (actus rues) and clear intention to do wrong/guilty minds (mend rea) Beccaria was critical of the barbarity, irregularity, and ad hoc nature of 18th century criminal justice. He urged that social order be based upon the law: the machinery of justice ought to be answerable to the rules of due process and sentencing policies ought to be tightly and specifically formulated to fit the crime. Swift, certain, proportionate to the harm caused by the act. The prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular event or state of affairs which contravenes the criminal law was caused by the accused person"s conduct.