摘要： 我国的宽严相济刑事政策与美国的两极化刑事政策在生成背景、基本含义、精神实质等方面都有显著区别，不宜混淆。两极化刑事政策的生成背景是矫正刑运动的危机及其反动，其基本含义是“重重”和“轻轻”二元分立、两极分化，其精神实质是重刑主义。而宽严相济刑事政策的生成背景是对严打刑事政策的反思和纠正，其基本含义是根据犯罪的严重程度和犯罪人的人身危险性大小实行宽区别对待、宽严互济、互补，其精神实质是宽严适度、侧重宽缓。

关键词: 刑事政策 , 宽严相济 , 两极化

Abstract: There is distinct differentiation between the criminal policy of combination of leniency and harshness of China and the polarized criminal policy of the United States．Their differentiation lies in their emerging backgrounds，their main implication and their empheses．The polarized criminal policy came into being because of the crisis of the rehabilitation model in the criminal justice in the United States．It means tougher punishments for serious crimes and lighter punishments for minor crimes．And it lays emphasis on tougher punishment on crimes．Differently，the criminal policy of combination of leniency and harshness emerged as the result of introspection of the hard—strike criminal policy of China．It means not only dealing with crimes and criminals leniently or harshly according to their seriousness and dangerourness，but also combining leniency and harshness together．And it lays emphasis on moderate punishment and lenient treament to the criminals．

Key words: criminal policy, combination of leniency and harshness, polarized criminal policy