Editing Capital punishment (section)

===Modern era===
[[File:Beccaria - Dei delitti e delle pene - 6043967 A.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Wikt:antiporta|''Antiporta'']] of ''Dei delitti e delle pene'' (''On Crimes and Punishments''), 1766 ed.]]
In the last several centuries, with the emergence of modern [[nation state]]s, justice came to be increasingly associated with the concept of [[natural and legal rights]]. The period saw an increase in standing police forces and permanent penitential institutions. [[Rational choice theory (criminology)|Rational choice theory]], a [[utilitarian]] approach to [[criminology]] which justifies punishment as a form of deterrence as opposed to retribution, can be traced back to [[Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria|Cesare Beccaria]], whose influential treatise ''On Crimes and Punishments'' (1764) was the first detailed analysis of capital punishment to demand the abolition of the death penalty.<ref>Marcello Maestro, "A pioneer for the abolition of capital punishment: Cesare Beccaria." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 34.3 (1973): 463–68. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2708966 online]</ref> In England, [[Jeremy Bentham]] (1748–1832), the founder of modern utilitarianism, called for the abolition of the death penalty.<ref name="deathpenalty">{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/1143143|author1=Bedau, Hugo Adam|title=Bentham's Utilitarian Critique of the Death Penalty|journal=The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology|volume=74|issue=3|date=Autumn 1983|pages=1033–65|jstor=1143143|url=http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol74/iss3/12|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831041015/http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol74/iss3/12/|archive-date=31 August 2017}}</ref> Beccaria, and later [[Charles Dickens]] and [[Karl Marx]] noted the incidence of increased violent criminality at the times and places of executions. Official recognition of this phenomenon led to executions being carried out inside prisons, away from public view.

In England in the 18th century, when there was no police force, Parliament drastically increased the number of capital offences to more than 200. These were mainly property offences, for example cutting down a cherry tree in an orchard.<ref name="JonesJohnstone2011">{{cite book|author1=Mark Jones|author2=Peter Johnstone|title=History of Criminal Justice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qhPdaCJWQikC&pg=PA152|date=22 July 2011|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-4377-3491-1|pages=150–}}</ref> In 1820, there were 160, including crimes such as shoplifting, petty theft or stealing cattle.<ref>Durant, Will and Ariel, ''The Story of Civilization, Volume IX: The Age of Voltaire'' New York, 1965, p. 71</ref> The severity of the so-called [[Bloody Code]] was often tempered by juries who refused to convict, or judges, in the case of petty theft, who arbitrarily set the value stolen at below the statutory level for a capital crime.<ref>Durant, p. 72,</ref>