Effiiency of criminal punishment and alternative measures of impact on criminals: a comparative analysis
The article is devoted to topical problems of the use of criminal punishment in the form of deprivation of liberty and alternative measures of inflence on persons who committed criminal offenses in different countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, USA, Germany, etc.). The author considers the issues of establishment of new guidelines, standards, requirements and principles in criminal and criminological policy, related to the gradual withdrawal from the current prevailing punitive approach in the penal enforcement area and transition to the correctional and resocialization penological model. Special attention is paid to some forms of treatment that have proved to be good: public (compulsory) work, placement under supervision of special subjects, bail, short-term imprisonment, penalties, house arrest. Examples of the ineffectiveness of death penalty in crime prevention are given. The author concludes that the forced correction of criminals in isolation from society is not successful. The reduction of prison terms and replacement of imprisonment for non-violent crimes by alternative measures of correction and re-education of convicts contributes to saving large budgetary resources. Alternative measures are also more effective in achieving the goals of correction and prevention of new crimes.