On the question of the essence of extremism as a social phenomenon

Introduction. The article analyzes the social and criminological aspects of the essence of extremism, examines the opinions of scientists on the concept of ex-tremism, and also develops the main directions of prevention and prevention of ex-tremism as a social phenomenon. The scientific article contains recommendations on improving the activities of state and public organizations aimed at preventing and pre-venting extremism. The author draws a conclusion about the concept of extremism as an antisocial phenomenon in society and suggests developing a comprehensive ap-proach that will increase the effectiveness of countering the spread of extremism, as well as develop measures to prevent and prevent it. Materials and methods. The methodological basis of scientific research is a dialectical approach that requires considering any processes in their development, dynamics, di-versity of connections, identifying their stable and changeable properties, which al-lowed a comprehensive study of the present study. During the research, the following methods were used: historical-legal, statistical, system-comparative, system-structural, comparative analysis method, formal-logical, expert evaluation method. Research results. The novelty of the publication is that, having considered the concept of extremism, its dynamics, as well as measures to prevent them, it is believed that ex-tremism is a complex, multidimensional and negative antisocial phenomenon based on an ideology aimed at denying any other views in an attempt to assert its system of principles, ideas and imposing by any contradictory means on other opponents, as well as creating an environment of intolerance in society towards representatives of certain social groups. Extremism continues to maintain negative trends throughout the coun-try, the dynamics increases every year, the degree of public danger increases due to new forms of manifestations, and a high level of latency remains. An analysis of the activities carried out in the Russian Federation allows us to conclude that the country is developing a state policy of actively countering extremism in all forms. Increasingly uses ideological.