Abstract: The object of the research involves general and distinctive characteristics, interactions, quantitative and qualitative disparities, mutual transitions, unity and opposites of alternative and non-alternative sanctions, that is, those signs that allow us to assert legal categories as paired. The research starts with analysis of using paired categories in legal science and the definition of the algorithm itself for investigating alternative and non-alternative sanctions as paired legal categories. The authors determine the general features characteristic of alternative and non-alternative sanctions, analyze their differences and interactions. Special attention is paid to derivatives from alternative and non-alternative sanctions to paired legal categories. The characteristics of the contradiction and unity of alternative and non-alternative sanctions are revealed. Alternative sanction is also seen as a microsystem containing several types of legal penalties that are interrelated with a higher order system. The methodological basis of the work is the dialectical-materialistic method combined with general research methods such as system-structural analysis and synthesis, and specific research method such as formal-legal analysis. As a result of the research, conclusions were drawn about the properties of unity and opposites, mutual transitions and provision, interaction, qualitative and quantitative disparity of alternative and non-alternative sanctions as well as the existence of interrelationships with higher-level categories. Some legal and technical methods used in constructing alternative and non-alternative sanctions have been identified. The authors suggest that we should use the term 'means of legal pressure' to describe both rewarding and punitive sanctions.