The proposed article studies the insufficiently studied problem of dualism during the development and the regulation of criminal legal means application to the persons who committed crimes. The authors identify two levels of legal consequences caused by the commission of crimes: 1) the system of punishments and 2) the system (or set of) other (in addition to punishment) criminal law measures. They, as a historical trend (which is observed at the present time), recognize the increasing saturation of criminal legislation with non-punitive measures. In their opinion, in terms of successful solution of the criminal legislation tasks, it is necessary to combine the application of punishments and other measures of a criminal-legal nature, that is, proper corrective and preventive measures, to the perpetrators of crimes. The article reveals a different approach to the regulation of the system of penalties; if, for example, in Russia and a number of other states of the near abroad, 13-17 types of punishments are envisaged, then only 3 "ordinary" punishments are provided in the Criminal Code of Poland. This diversity is even more evident in the regulation of other criminal law measures. The authors assess the dualistic system of measures in criminal law positively and believe that it should be improved in terms of their humanization and differentiation, depending on the severity of committed crimes, the identity of perpetrators and other significant criteria.