Italian Penal Code

By Enrico Ferri. Translated by Edgar Betts.

Report and Preliminary Project for an Italian Penal Code, In both Italian and a rare English translation by Edgar Betts. This “model penal code” as it would be called today, though never adopted by Italy, formed the basis for many penal codes in communist and socialist countries around the world, in particular Cuba. The concepts of criminal intent and criminal responsibility remained (and still do) the devilishly sticky point for this and all criminal codes, especially when faced with the criticisms by social scientists that economic deprivation among many other factors may constitute powerful external “causes” of crime, thus muddying the waters considerably concerning individuals’ responsibility for their criminal acts.

Royal Commission for the Reform of the Penal Statutes. Italy. ca. 1920. 180p.