On the issue of the relationship between the categories of penalization and punishment

The criminal-legal policy of the state serves as the basis of an effective crime prevention system. A crucial element and method of this policy is penalization, with criminal punishment being an integral tool of the latter. The study draws a line between these categories, defines their common and distinctive features. The author argues that punishment does not fully encapsulate the concept of penalization. The article analyzes not only doctrinal approaches to the concept of penalization and punishment, but also reveals their legal nature. The study also addresses the forms and types of penalization. In particular, it critiques the refusal by some authors to recognize the concept of actual penalization and the approach that reduces penalization merely to the regulation of the institution of criminal punishment and the sanctions of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The findings presented in the article substantiate the central role of penalization in criminal-legal policy; the close, yet non-identical, relationship between the categories of “penalization” and “punishment”; and the fundamental influence of penalization on the legislative regulation of punishments, as well as the necessity of forming a system of punishments based on the nature and degree of societal danger posed by the criminal act.