In this article I will discuss an important theory that helped shape our criminal justice system today and how it came to be. There are multiple major theories that have made the criminal justice system what it is today, but I will only discuss one theory and the theory I will discuss in this article is the classical school theory. I chose this theory because I believe that people have the ability to decide what to do. This also plays a role in the criminal activities in which they participate. I believe a person can choose to commit a crime if they really want to. Rather a person is surrounded by criminals or the best non-criminals in the world and that person can still choose to commit a crime. The person may be raised in a way that teaches them not to commit crimes, but later in life they may choose to commit a crime. Beccaria believed in the social contract, when you choose to live in a society, you then choose to give up some personal responsibilities. freedom in exchange for the safety and comfort of a society. Laws are conceived as the condition of a society of rational and free-willed individuals. A system must be established to ensure that individuals in society are protected against any individual or group of individuals who wish to violate personal freedoms in the social contract. The justice system would ensure that all individuals in society obey and/or follow the social contract. This article is about Classical School theory that emerged in the eighteenth century; Cesare Beccaria. Some of the main ideas that derive from this theory are the concept of human beings as rational beings with free will, utilitarianism (the greatest good for the greatest number of people), civil rights and the due... half of paper... ...t crimes if you are a well-known celebrity and have a lot of money. Works Cited Beccaria, C. (1963). Of crimes and punishments. In C. Beccaria, On crimes and punishments. Englewood Cliffs: trans. Henery Paoluccis.Carpenter, A. (n.d.). Beccaria, Cesare: Classical school. Retrieved April 19, 2014, from Academica.edu: https://www.academia.edu/235709/Beccaria_Cesare_Classical_SchoolCesara Beccaria. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2014, from Biography.com: http://www.biography.com/people/cesare-beccaria-39630#awesm=~oBUoP77I4gBpZIIII, FP (2014, 2010, 2004). Criminological Theory sixth edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc. Monachesi, E. (1955, November-December). Pioneers of criminology. IX. Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794). Retrieved April 4, 2014, from The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, Vol. 46, no. 4: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1139709