Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Watershed -- Visionary -- Cri de Coeur -- Critique of Inquisition Procedure -- A Final Note -- About the author -- Beccaria's Life And Times -- A Modest Man -- Crime and Punishment -- House Arrest -- Academy of Fists -- Thomas Jefferson -- A Changing World -- Retribution -- Break with Friends -- Death of Teresa -- Consideration of "On Crimes and Punishments" -- Secret Accusations and Torture -- The Effects of Secrecy -- "Torture a Mercy" -- Trial by Ordeal -- Consecrated Cruelty -- Bentham on Torture -- Voltaire -- The Death Penalty -- Ancient Origin -- War Against Citizens -- Deprivation of Liberty -- Judicial Murder -- Acceptance in Continental Europe -- Impact in England -- The Rev. Martin Madan -- Archdeacon Paley -- Criminal Law Commissioners -- Criminal Law and Punishments -- Reform of Criminal Justice -- Penal Law -- The Origins of Punishments and the Right to Punish -- Interpretation of the Law -- Consequences -- Spirit of the Law -- Obscurity of the Law -- The Division of Punishments -- Crimes of High Treason -- Voltaire -- Personal Security -- The Purpose of Punishment -- Prompt Punishment -- Public Tranquility -- Pleas of the Crown and Confessions -- Crimes Difficult to Prove and Others -- Presumptions -- Adultery -- Homosexuality -- Infanticide -- Suicide -- Voltaire on Suicide -- Smuggling -- Bankruptcy -- Leading Questions -- Oaths -- Sanctuaries -- Extradition -- Various Topics and Imprisonment -- Prosecutions and Prescriptions -- Criminal Attempts -- Accomplices -- Evidence and Proofs of a Crime -- Witnesses -- William Garrow -- Imprisonment -- John Howard -- Voltaire -- Other Punishments -- Crimes of Violence -- Punishment of Nobles -- Theft and Robbery -- Ill-repute -- Rewards for Detaining or Killing Criminals -- Criminal Procedure -- Voltaire -- Mildness of Punishments.

The Means of Preventing Crimes -- Science -- Magistrates -- Certainty of Punishments-Pardons -- False Ideas of Utility -- Family Spirit -- Voltaire's Commentary -- Beccaria's Influence -- Profound Impact -- The French Revolution and Adversary Trial -- Human Rights and Voltaire's Causes Celebres -- John Adams -- Conclusion -- Success -- Revolution -- England -- Conclusion -- Select Bibliography -- Index -- Back cover.