Prohibitions and Penalties – a Universal Way to Resolving Social Problems? (Part II)

Prohibitions and Penalties – a Universal Way to Resolving Social Problems? (Part II)


Skoblikov P.A.

Dr. Sci. (Law), Leading Researcher, Institute of State and Law of RAS, Moscow, Russia skoblikov@list.ru

ID of the Article:

Rubric: Sociology of law

For citation:

Skoblikov P.A. Prohibitions and Penalties – a Universal Way to Resolving Social Problems? (Part II). Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2026. No 7. P. 89-100



Abstract

The second part of the study presents the problem of the growing volume of legislative prohibitions in Russia in recent years, supported by administrative and criminal penalties for noncompliance. Examples of legislative initiatives show how the negative effects of prohibitions are compounded by uncertainty in their formulation and the possibility of arbitrary interpretation. It is proved that the scalable practice of including norms on liability for new types of offenses in administrative and criminal legislation is not accompanied by a proportional increase in the staffing of regulatory, law enforcement and judicial authorities, as well as their additional funding. All this leads to a distortion of the declared objectives of legal policy, the expansion of objective prerequisites for selective enforcement, abuse of authority and corruption. Proposals on optimizing legislative activity and removing unreasonable and ineffective prohibitions from legislation are formulated and substantiated.


Keywords
prohibitions on propaganda; family loneliness; extremist paraphernalia; domestic violence; punitive legal policy; redundancy of regulatory regulation; legislative activity; examination of draft laws

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Content No 7, 2026