Critique of the phenomenon of criminal populism with emphasis on the approach of the Iranian criminal justice system

In populist thought, emphasizing the thoughts of individuals in society as the basis of public policy is doubly important. The centrality of public opinion and political intervention in criminal policy has led to a populist approach. In other words, populist criminal policy seeks to combat crime by engaging public opinion. In the Iranian penal system, in recent years, under the influence of the prevailing atmosphere in society, populist policies have emerged. In fact, the idea of ​​criminal populism emphasizes the model of crime control through hostility to the perpetrator. This type of criminal policy deviates from the principled and scientific process of criminological teachings and makes it subject to political considerations, in a way that damages the structural implications of criminal law and the moral rights of criminal law subjects. In this article, we will examine the issue in a descriptive-analytical manner and answer the question: What factors cause populism and what are the characteristics of this phenomenon? In the following, we will examine the reflection of populist laws and make suggestions in this regard.