How did humanitarian reform movements contribute to the development of criminology in the late 1700s?

In the late 1700s, humanitarian reform movements were instrumental in the emergence of criminology by challenging the cruelty, inefficiency, and arbitrary nature of existing criminal justice and prison systems.1

Key figures of the classical school, such as Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham, and Sir Samuel Romilly, sought to humanize penal institutions and reform legal practices. Their efforts were grounded in the Enlightenment principle of utilitarianism, which argued that the objective of the penal system should be to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number.123

These reformers advocated for several critical changes:
* Due Process: They pushed for the principle of nulla poena sine lege, ensuring that legal proceedings were transparent and governed by law rather than the caprice of magistrates.12
* Abolition of Torture: Influenced by Beccaria’s critique of barbaric practices, many nations began to abandon torture as a lawful means of investigation.24
* Proportionality: They argued that penalties should be scaled to the severity of the offense, and they were the first to systematically advocate for the abolition of capital punishment.25

While these movements prioritized legal and penological reform over scientific inquiry, they established the foundational focus on the criminal justice system that allowed criminology to develop as a social science.1