Children at Risk? : Safety as a Social Value

More years of productive life are lost to accidents than to heart disease and cancer combined.

More children and young people die from accidental injury than any other cause.

Little attention has been paid to the problem of child accidents or to the challenge of accident prevention. "Children at Risk" fills this gap, using survey data and detailed interviews with parents and guardians to explore the causes, consequences and policy implications of child accidents in Britain. "Children at Risk" focuses on key debates in accident research: are accidents caused by environmental hazards or by risky behaviour? should differences in risk be explained with reference to class or culture? and should strategies for accident prevention be based on professional opinion or local knowledge?

By considering these questions, the authors accumulate sufficient evidence to make a range of practical suggestions on how parents, professionals and policymakers might best keep children safe. "Children at Risk" combines a comprehensive literature review with rigorous empirical research. It will be of great interest to students in social policy, public health and medical sociology, to health professionals and to other welfare practitioners and policymakers.