The article is devoted to analysis of depenalization as a method of criminal-law policy. It
is concluded that the lack of a common understanding of the concept and essence of
depenalization does not allow the full implementation of this method of criminal-law in
practice. At the same time, he could act as one effective instrument for reforming domestic
criminal law in the context of the declared humanization of criminal responsibility and
punishment. It would seem that in this way it would be possible to significantly reduce the
number of convicted persons sentenced to the isolation of a person from society (first of all – to
imprisonment for a certain term), but also to reform the system of criminal penalties in
general, excluding from it or at least substantially reforming obsolete and actually ineffective
types of punishment.
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