Criminal populism is an approach that aims to control the criminal phenomenon in the society and prevent disorder in the society by being strict and imposing heavy punishments on some criminals, and in other words,  provide security for the citizens of the society.  Iran's penal policy, like many countries, has been receptive to populist ideas, especially in recent years. In this research, the manifestations of criminal populism in the field of criminal policy in the pretrial phase in Iran have been discussed. In order to ensure health and justice in the criminal justice system and to prevent this system from being contaminated by populist criminal policies, multiple approaches should be considered considering the complexity of the problem of crime and its control. Strengthening social capital through its main components, i.e. trust and social cohesion, and emphasis on knowledge management in different layers of society, especially the criminal justice system, as well as communication spaces, are considered as important social approaches in this field.