<P> Eighteenth - century rational philosophers like Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham developed a "novel theory of crime"--specifically, that what made an action subject to criminal punishment was the harm it caused to other members of society . For the rationalists, sins that did not result in social harm were outside the purview of civil courts . With John Locke's "sensational psychology" as a guide, which maintained that environment alone defined human behavior, many rationalists sought the roots of a criminal's behavior in his or her past environment . </P> <P> Rationalists differed as to what environmental factors gave rise to criminality . Some rationalists, including Cesare Beccaria, blamed criminality on the uncertainty criminal punishment, whereas earlier criminologists had linked criminal deterrence to the severity of punishment . In essence, Beccaria believed that where arrest, conviction, and sentencing for crime were "rapid and infallible," punishments for crime could remain moderate . Beccaria did not take issue with the substance of contemporary penal codes--e.g., whipping and the pillory; rather, he took issue with their form and implementation . </P> <P> Other rationalists, like Jeremy Bentham, believed that deterrence alone could not end criminality and looked instead to the social environment as the ultimate source of crime . Bentham's conception of criminality led him to concur with philanthropist reformers on the need for rehabilitation of offenders . But, unlike the philanthropists, Bentham and like - minded rationalists believed the true goal of rehabilitation was to show convicts the logical "inexpedience" of crime, not their estrangement from religion . For these rationalists, society was the source of and the solution to crime . </P> <P> Ultimately, hard labor became the preferred rationalist therapy . Bentham eventually adopted this approach, and his well - known 1791 design for the Panopticon prison called for inmates to labor in solitary cells for the course of their imprisonment . Another rationalist, William Eden, collaborated with John Howard and Justice William Blackstone in drafting the Penitentiary Act of 1779, which called for a penal regime of hard labor . </P>

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