PREVENTION OF CRIMINAL OFFENSES BY POLICE: STATE OF SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the degree of scientific development of the issue of the functioning of the National Police of Ukraine as a leading entity in crime prevention. The purpose of the study is to critically rethink existing theoretical and methodological approaches to defining the role of the police in the system of crime prevention, as well as to verify understudied aspects that require further scientific determination. The author thoroughly examines the genesis and current state of doctrinal developments on this issue during the period of Ukraine's independence. It is noted that the issue of improving the effectiveness of law enforcement activities in the field of crime prevention has been the focus of attention of many domestic scholars, which has led to the formation of a strong theoretical basis for further research. Systematization and critical analysis of the current array of dissertation research devoted to the issue of crime prevention in various fields of legal science allows us to conclude that there is a shortage of comprehensive monographic studies focusing on the functioning of the National Police of Ukraine as an entity preventing criminal offenses in the context of the latest challenges. In particular, scholars have overlooked the transformation of law enforcement activities in the context of full-scale armed aggression and the process of the state's European integration. At the current stage of scientific research, there is an urgent need to study a number of gaps, namely: theoretical and methodological support for the preventive function of the police in conditions of a special legal regime (martial law), as well as a comparative analysis of foreign experience in the functioning of police institutions in the field of crime prevention with a view to its further implementation in domestic practice. The conclusion that the development of conceptual theoretical and practical foundations for the functioning of the police as the leading entity in crime prevention is becoming a priority scientific task at the current stage of state building is well-founded. This implies the imperative need to solve a complex of correlative fundamental and applied problems, which is determined by the strategic vectors of Ukraine's development: the establishment of subjectivity in the European legal space, the strengthening of the institutional capacity of the state, and the need to effectively counter the existential challenges of armed aggression.