SOCIAL PREVENTION AS A STRATEGY FOR ENSURING PUBLIC SAFETY IN THE CONDITIONS OF MODERN CHALLENGES

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to comprehensively define the substantive components and key dimensions of social prevention as a strategic instrument for ensuring public security amid increasing social risks and contemporary global challenges. The article analyzes social prevention as a crucial instrument for ensuring public security in the context of growing social risks caused by political instability, military conflicts, economic crises, and global social transformations. The need for a transition to a proactive model of preventive activity is substantiated. This model implies not only prompt response to crisis situations but also anticipatory elimination of their root causes. The study systematizes four key dimensions of social prevention: individual-behavioral, socio-infrastructural, cultural-normative, and institutional-administrative. The role of preventive programs in ensuring decent living conditions, promoting social integration, and enabling population adaptation to new life circumstances is emphasized. Special attention is given to the salutogenic approach, which conceptually focuses on the development of internal personal resources, coherence, and stress resilience. The article also examines contemporary classifications of preventive programs (universal, selective, and indicated) and identifies risk and protective factors within the sphere of preventive work. The importance of legal and regulatory support, interagency cooperation, and institutional capacity in forming an effective system of social protection is highlighted. The strategic value of prevention is concluded to lie in strengthening national social security policy. Prospective areas for further research include the development of effectiveness criteria for preventive interventions, investigation of coherence mechanisms, and the design of innovative technologies for preventive action considering the contextual specifics of target groups.