Approaches to understanding social control in the sphere of criminal-legal regulation

Introduction. The article analyzes the provisions existing in the doctrine of criminal law and related branches of law, revealing the essence of the concept of social control both in the sphere of public administration in general and criminal law regulation in particular. Materials and Methods. The research materials were scientific articles of scientists, legislative norms related to the definition of the content of social control as an independent category used in the sphere of legal regulation. During the study, the dialectical method was used, an analysis of scientific, historical and regulatory sources was carried out, and methods of generalization and grouping of data were used. The Results of the Study made it possible to compare various approaches used in defining the concept of social control, as well as to reveal its content in relation to the sphere of criminal law regulation; to identify the features of the methods and means of social control characteristic of criminal law regulation. Findings and Conclusions. The conducted analysis allowed us to identify the tendency to use the term social control not to designate a certain activity of the state or non-state bodies and even individuals associated with targeted influence on participants in public relations, but only as a reference to the globalist narrative of state (and often supranational) management of society. In addition, the author's definition of social control in the sphere of criminal law regulation is proposed, and an approach to identifying levels of social control is developed.