Cherkasov S. Criminological Concept of Alternative Punishments

The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the system of alternative and non-custodial punishments from criminological perspective and investigate the role of these types of punishment for crime reduction. The author analyses the concept and the system of alternative punishments and their evolution in the process of Criminal policy democratization under the conditions of building an independent rule-of-law Ukrainian state. The dissertation contains a detailed analysis of implementing non-custodial punishments during the last decades. The author looks into the advantages and disadvantages of custodial and non-custodial punishments and comes to the con-clusion that in modern conditions alternative punishments prove more effective than imprisonment. For this reason the author argues the necessity to revise the Criminal policy of the country by introducing a more lenient approach to the system of punish-ments, consisting in the reduction of custodial and more frequent implementation of alternative punishments.